An Uber Driver Claimed His Driving App Forced Him to Kill

An Uber Driver Claimed His Dri... is listed (or ranked) 1 on the list 13 Horrifying Real-Life Crimes
Committed by "Demons"

Photo: Marie-Lan Nguyen/via Wikimedia

After Uber driver Jason Brian Dalton went on a shooting spree, killing six people in the early hours of
February 21, 2016, people wondered what could drive a man to commit such heinous murders. Money?
Revenge? It turned out the real reason was something much more insidious. Dalton told detectives that
the Uber app on his iPhone had taken over his mind and forced him to commit murder. A detective for
the case said:

Dalton [explained] how when he opens up the Uber taxi app a symbol appeared and he recognized that
symbol as the Eastern Star symbol. Dalton acknowledged that he recognized the Uber symbol as being
that of the Eastern Star and a devil head popped up on his screen and when he pressed the button on
the app, that is when all the problems started.

But it's not just that the app-demon forced him to kill - it also helped him get from place to place in a
timely manner:

Dalton explained how you can drive over 100 mph and go through stop signs and you can just get places.
Dalton said he wishes he would never have spoken what that symbol was when he saw it on his phone.
Dalton described the devil figure as a horned cow head or something like that and then it would give you
an assignment and it would literally take over your whole body.

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The Son of Sam Claimed His Neighbor's Possessed Dog Told Him to Kill People

The Son of Sam Claimed His Nei... is listed (or ranked) 2 on the list 13 Horrifying Real-Life Crimes
Committed by "Demons"
Photo: Vassil/via Wikimedia

New York City during the summer of 1976 was a hotbed of anger, frustration, and fear, and David
Berkowitz (AKA "the Son of Sam") didn't help the matter by killing six people and wounding seven others
in the span of one year. After his arrest, Berkowitz told police that he was under the control of a demon
named "Harvey" who inhabited his neighbor's dog and implored him to kill people.

Once, during a three-month break from his murder spree, Berkowitz wrote the New York Post to say, "I
am still here like a spirit roaming the night. Thirsty, hungry, seldom stopping to rest."

After being incarcerated (Berkowitz received a sentence of 365 years in prison), he became a born-again
Christian, but he still believes that the devil and god are fighting for possession of his soul.

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A North Carolina Man Performed Animal Sacrifices Before Turning to Murdering Human Beings

A North Carolina Man Performed... is listed (or ranked) 3 on the list 13 Horrifying Real-Life Crimes
Committed by "Demons"

Photo: Fra Angelico/via Wikimedia

Pazuzu Algarad was arrested in 2014 for killing a person and then burying the body in his backyard in July
2009, as well as helping his girlfriend bury someone she killed later that year. He had taken the name
"Pazuzu" in reference to a demon mentioned in The Exorcist, and he had a forked tongue and sharpened
teeth.

An anonymous man who lived at the home where the bodies were buried told police that he felt Pazuzu
was possessed:

It was very serpentine. And his eyes would kind of get a little, like, glazy. Like almost not there, like the
inner part of him would kind of phase away. You could tell when his demons needed something from
him, because they took over... About once a month, and it was usually on a full moon, they sacrificed at
least one rabbit, and then he would eat the heart of it, and then burn the flesh of the rabbit.

Investigators on the scene later deemed the home (the site of many animal sacrifices) as unsafe for
human life.

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Despite Undergoing an Exorcism, Michael Taylor Savagely Murdered His Wife and Their Dog

Despite Undergoing an Exorcism... is listed (or ranked) 4 on the list 13 Horrifying Real-Life Crimes
Committed by "Demons"

Photo: Follower of Hieronymus Bosch/via Wikimedia

In 1974, Michael Taylor was just a simple butcher living in Ossett, England, who was suddenly overcome
by an evil spirit. He had an exorcism performed on October 5th and 6th of 1974, and while it went okay,
the priests weren't able to expel all the demons. According to Bill Ellis, an authority on folklore and the
occult in contemporary culture,

In an all-night ceremony... [the exorcists believed they had] invoked and cast out at least forty demons,
including those of incest, bestiality, blasphemy, and lewdness. At the end, exhausted, they allowed Taylor
to go home, although they felt that at least three demons - insanity, murder, and violence - were still left
in him.

So you know, the big three.

After he returned home, Taylor immediately murdered his wife by ripping out her eyes and tongue, then
tearing off most of the skin from her face, finally strangling their pet poodle. Police found Taylor standing
in the street naked and covered in blood shouting, "It is the blood of Satan."
42 people have voted on

Horrifying Things That Happened In The Book 'IT' Way Too Awful for the Movies

Two Parents Bound Their Children with Duct Tape, Believing They Were Possessed

Two Parents Bound Their Childr is listed (or ranked) 5 on the list 13 Horrifying Real-Life Crimes
Committed by "Demons"

Photo: Frans Floris/via Wikimedia

In 2012, after living in what they believed to be a demon-possessed house and becoming convinced that
the world was ending, Deborah and Adolfo Gomez admitted to restraining their children (ages 7 and 5)
with duct tape inside an SUV in a Walmart parking lot because they were "demon-possessed."

The couple was arrested in Lawrence, Kansas, where investigators learned that not only was the couple
under demonic possession, but Adolfo had not slept for the last nine days. So maybe that had something
to do with it.

19 people have voted on

People Describe The Creepiest Sights They’ve Seen In Basements

A Demon-Possessed Teen Stabbed an Elderly Man 10 Times

A Demon-Possessed Teen Stabbed is listed (or ranked) 6 on the list 13 Horrifying Real-Life Crimes
Committed by "Demons"

Photo: Public Domain/via Wikimedia

In March 2016, 17-year-old Tommy Smith attempted to rob Peter Churm, a 66-year-old man, for the keys
to his son's Range Rover. When Churm refused to hand the keys over, Smith flew into a rage and stabbed
Churn in the face, neck, and ears. The teenage boy stabbed the old man so fiercely that the knife actually
broke in two. Churm ended the attack by bashing Smith in the head with a claw hammer. Smith, a
diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, later told a psychiatrist that he was magnetically drawn towards his
victim, and that he saw a demon float out of Churm's wounds when he attacked him.
The Out to Sea collection

Scuba Divers Describe Their Most Terrifying Underwater Experiences

A Possessed Killer Beheaded His Victim and Tried to Sell His Head to a Spiritual Leader

A Possessed Killer Beheaded Hi is listed (or ranked) 7 on the list 13 Horrifying Real-Life Crimes
Committed by "Demons"

Photo: Konstantin Makovsky/via Wikimedia

According to Reverend Cecil Begbie, South African Aljar Swartz was possessed by demons when he
strangled a Ravensmead teenager to death before beheading him and leaving his body in an abandoned
school in October 2013. Swartz claimed that he had become possessed by a vague collection of "Satanic
attacks," but he never went into further detail. Allegedly after beheading his victim, he'd intended to sell
the man's head to a traditional healer called a sangoma.

Reverend Bigbie did his best to help out Swartz and instructed church groups all over Africa to pray for
Bigbie on the Good Friday following Swartz's incarceration. Swartz said that when the collective prayer
was held, he felt that he was standing under a waterfall with pure, clean water flowing through his body.
He claims he is no longer possessed by demons - however, the courts have stated they will not mitigate
his sentence based on his supposed "recovery."

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The Murder of Alan Bono Led to a Rift in the Paranormal Community

The Murder of Alan Bono Led to is listed (or ranked) 8 on the list 13 Horrifying Real-Life Crimes
Committed by "Demons"

Photo: Hans Memling/via Wikimedia

In 1981, 19-year-old Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabbed 40-year-old Alan Bono to death after arguing over
Johnson's girlfriend. After being picked up by the police, Johnson gave the immortal defense, "The devil
made me do it."

Rather than balk at his claims, every paranormal investigator worth their salt flocked to Connecticut to
interview Johnson and find out if he was truly possessed. According to Ed and Lorraine Warren, the
paranormal investigators who helped make the Amityville case so famous, Johnson had become
possessed when he threatened to fight one of a collection of 43 demons who were living inside his 11-
year-old brother.

As Johnson's trial went on, the paranormal society split down the middle. The most vocal opponent of
the Warrens' continuing support of Johnson was the Amazing Kreskin, who noted that the murder was
"simply a means for the couple to prey on the superstitions of the public and build up their annual
lecture revenues."

After a judge denied the demonic possession angle that the defense was trying to play, Johnson's team
didn't have a leg to stand on and the killer was eventually convicted of manslaughter. Johnson received
the maximum sentence of 10 to 20 years and was released for good behavior after serving just over four
years at the Connecticut Correctional Institute in Somers.
 The 44-Day Horror
Story Of Junko
Furuta
By Katie Serena
Published January 24, 2018
Updated October 30, 2018

Junko Furuta was tortured for 44 days in the home of her

classmate and then was murdered for beating her captors
in mahjong.

TOP ARTICLES1/5READ MOREMeet Pupetta Maresca, The

Beauty Queen And MobWife Who Shot Her Husband’s Killer In
Cold Blood

YouTubeJunko Furuta

As far as Shinji Minato’s parents were concerned, Junko Furuta

was their son’s girlfriend. The pretty young girl hung around with
their son so often it seemed as if she were living at their home.

Even when they began to suspect that she was something more
and that perhaps her perpetual presence wasn’t always
consensual, they labored under the delusion that everything was
fine, for they feared their son’s violence and his friend’s Yakuza
connections.

As far as Shinji Minato and his friends Hiroshi Miyano, Jo Ogura,

and Yasushi Watanabe were concerned, however, Junko Furuta
was their captive, their sex slave, and their punching bag.
In November of 1988, Junko Furuta was just a normal teenage
girl. She was pretty, bright, and got good grades in her classes at
Yashio-Minami High School in Misato, Japan. Despite her “good
girl” reputation – unlike her classmates, she didn’t drink, smoke,
or use drugs – she was quite popular at school and seemingly
had a bright future ahead of her.

Then, she met Hiroshi Miyano.

Miyano was well known as the school bully, often seen bragging
about his connections to Yakuza, a powerful Japanese organized
crime syndicate. According to their classmates, Miyano had
developed somewhat of a crush on Furuta and was enraged
when she turned him down. After all, no one had ever dared to
reject him, especially after he told them of his Yakuza friends.

A few days after taking his rejection, Miyano and Minato were
hanging around a local park in Misato, preying on innocent
women. As known and experienced gang-rapists, Miyano and
Minato were experts at spotting easy targets.

YouTubeHiroshi Miyano and Shinji Minato

Around 8:30, the boys noticed Furuta on her bicycle on her way
home from her job. Minato kicked Furuta off of her bike, expertly
creating a diversion, at which point Miyano stepped in, pretending
to be an innocent and concerned bystander. After helping her up,
he asked if she wanted an escort home, which Furuta unwittingly
accepted.

She never made it home.

Instead, Miyano led her to an abandoned warehouse, where he
told her of his Yakuza connections and raped her, threatening to
kill her and her family if she made a sound. He then took her to a
park, where Minato, Ogura, and Watanabe were waiting. There,
the other boys raped her and smuggled her into Minato’s parents
home.

Though Junko Furuta’s parents called the police and reported

their daughter missing, the boys made sure they wouldn’t go
looking for her, forcing her to call home and say that she had run
away and was staying with a friend. Whenever Minato’s parents
were around, Furuta was forced to pose as his girlfriend, though
they eventually began to catch wind of what was really going on.

Unfortunately, the threat of the Yakuza was enough to keep them

quiet, and for 44 days Minato’s parents lived in alarming
ignorance of the horrors that were happening in their own home.

Over the course of those 44 days, Junko Furuta was raped over
400 times by Miyano and his friends, as well as other boys they
knew, whom they invited over and encouraged to hurt her. They
would insert iron bars, scissors, skewers, fireworks, and even a lit
lightbulb into her vagina and anus, destroying her internal
anatomy which left her unable to defecate or urinate properly.

When they weren’t raping her, the boys forced her to do terrible
things, like eat live cockroaches, masturbate in front of them, and
drink her own urine. Her body, still very much alive, was hung
from the ceiling and beaten with golf clubs, bamboo sticks, and
iron rods. Her eyelids and genitals were burned with cigarettes,
lighters and hot wax.

Twice, the police were alerted to Furutas condition, and twice they
failed to intervene.
The first time, a boy who had been invited over to the Minato
house by Miyano went home after seeing Furuta and told his
brother about what was happening. The brother then told his
parents, who contacted the police. The police showed up but
were assured by the Minato family that there was no girl inside.
The answer was clearly satisfactory enough for the police, as they
never returned to the home.

The second time, it was Furuta herself who called, but before she
was able to say anything, the boys discovered her. When the
police called back, Miyano assured them it had been a mistake.

As punishment for calling the police, the boys doused Furuta’s

legs in lighter fluid and set her on fire.

On January 4, 1989, Furuta died. The boys had reportedly

become enraged when she beat them at a game of mahjong and
tortured her to the point of death. Scared of being charged with
murder, the boys dumped Junko Furuta’s body in a 55-gallon
drum, filling it with concrete before dropping it on a cement truck.

Two weeks later, the police arrested Miyano and Ogura on a

separate gang-rape charge. During Miyano’s interrogation, the
police mentioned an open murder investigation. Believing that it
was the murder of Furuta and that Ogura must have confessed,
Miyano told the police where they could find Furuta’s body.

In the end, the murder case which the police had been
referencing had been unrelated to Furuta, and Miyano had
unwittingly turned himself in. Within days, all four boys were in
custody.

Despite their unspeakable torture of Junko Furuta, the boys

received shockingly light sentences.
Hiroshi Miyano was sentenced to 20 years, Shinji Minato was
sentenced to five-to-nine years, Jo Ogura served eight years, and
Yasushi Watanabe served five-to-seven years.

Though they were juveniles at the time was attributed as the

cause of their sentences, it is widely believed that the Yakuza had
something to do with it. Had the case been heard elsewhere or
had the boys been just one or two years older, they would have
been dealt capital punishments.

neoclassical
LOGAN, Ia. – Cody Metzker-Madsen likely faces years in psychiatric care after a judge on
Friday found him not guilty of murder by reason of insanity in the death of the teen's 5-
year-old foster brother.

District Court Judge Kathleen Kilnoski ruled Metzker-Madsen was legally insane when he
beat Dominic Elkins with a brick and drowned the boy. Such verdicts are rare, but it's the
second time this year a defendant in an Iowa murder case has successfully used the
insanity defense.

Dominic's biological mother, Barbara Kunch, left the courtroom crying as the judge read the
ruling.

Metzker-Madsen, now 18, killed Dominic in August 2013 while the two were playing
outdoors alone at the home of their Logan-area foster family. The teen testified that he was
in his "own world" at the time of Dominic's death. He believed the boy was a goblin
commander that he needed to kill, he testified.

In her ruling, which came immediately after closing statements, Kilnoski relied on opinions
from a forensic psychologist who testified for the defense.

The psychologist testified Thursday that Metzker-Madsen's lack of emotion when he

described his attack on Dominic was evidence he was in a psychotic state at the time.
 "During his interview with (Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation) agents, and in his
evaluations … and during his testimony at trial, Cody Metzker-Madsen appeared to be
unaffected by the gravity of his acts against Dominic," Kilnoski said as she ruled. "He was
animated in describing his battle against the goblin, he became testy when confronted with
his lies and inconsistencies. However, it is not clear he appreciates, even now, the
consequences of his action."

Metzker-Madsen sat with a pen and notebook as Kilnoski gave her ruling, as he often did
throughout the seven-day trial at the Harrison County Courthouse.

He said little to reporters as he left the courthouse, escorted by two sheriff's deputies.

Buy Photo
Cody Metzker-Madsen leaves the Harrison County Courthouse (Photo: Grant Rodgers/The Register)
The teen will now be in the custody of the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in
Coralville, a medium-security prison facility. He will undergo a psychiatric evaluation by the
center's chief medical officer, and a report will be submitted within 15 days of the teen's
arrival outlining a diagnosis of any mental health problems.

In her ruling, Kilnoski said that Metzker-Madsen showed an "extreme indifference to

human life." However, several witnesses gave accounts about the teen's inability to
understand his violent acts, she said.

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Kilnoski based her opinion largely upon that testimony and watching the teen throughout
trial, she said.

"During this trial, the court heard extensive evidence about Metzker-Madsen's history of
staring episodes, epilepsy, oppositional behaviors, attention deficits, lies, fantasy
characters and possible hallucinations," she said. "This is a young man who has never
been mentally normal."
The report will include an opinion on whether Metzker-Madsen is dangerous to himself or
others, Kilnoski said. Under Iowa law, he can be kept in a facility until he is deemed no
longer dangerous.

There's no clear path forward outlining how long Metzker-Madsen will be kept in psychiatric
care. Currently, there are two people at the Coralville facility who arrived after being found
not guilty by reason of insanity, said Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for the Iowa Department
of Corrections.

One person has been held there since September 2004 and the other since April 2010.
They are considered patients at the facility's forensic patient hospital; Scaletta declined to
release their names.

Another Iowan recently found not guilty by reason of insanity has been transferred out of
the prison facility and into one operated by the Iowa Department of Human Services.

Thomas Barlas Jr., 43, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in Cerro Gordo County
District Court in August.

Barlas faced a murder charge for stabbing and killing his father in his Mason City home in
2013. At the time of the killing, Barlas claimed he was Jesus and he had killed Satan,
according to the Mason City Globe Gazette.

Barlas is now at the Cherokee Mental Health Institute, said Aaron Hamrock, his defense
attorney.

It is rare to have two defendants found legally insane in one year, said Robert Rigg, the
director of the criminal defense program at Drake University Law School. Both cases were
tried before a judge, rather than a jury, underscoring the idea that judges might better
understand the legal definition of insanity than jurors, he said.

"It kind of serves to reinforce the notion that if you're going to plead an insanity defense,
you're better off taking that matter to a judge than a jury," he said. "It's been my experience
that if I have an insanity defense, I'm going to take a hard, hard look at waiving a jury."

In her closing argument, assistant Iowa attorney general Denise Timmins said lies that
Metzker-Madsen told after Dominic's death undercut his story of being in a fantasy world.

In his testimony, the teen said he returned to his foster parents' house after coming out of
the fantasy and realizing he did not know where the boy was. Metzker-Madsen told his
foster parents' daughter that Dominic hit himself in the head with a brick, she said.
 In actuality, blood spatter evidence in the trial showed the teen attacked Dominic,
smashing the boy's jaw, knocking out teeth and causing multiple bruises, Kilnoski noted in
her ruling.

"Immediately after killing Dominic, the defendant was at the house making up a story," she
said. "And not just any story, a story that fits with the facts of the crime."

Several witnesses, including Metzker-Madsen's biological mother, testified that he'd get
angry when he didn't get his way, Timmins said.

The prosecutor said it was more likely that Dominic angered the teen in some way, leading
to the attack.

But in his closing, defense attorney Michael Williams attacked the credibility of the state's
expert witness, Des Moines psychiatrist James Dennert. The psychiatrist discounted
Metzker-Madsen's story from the beginning of his evaluation, he said.

"His opinion in this case was basically dismissive of Cody," he said. "He didn't believe
anything Cody said."

classical thought
LONG ISLANDCRIME

Defendant sentenced to 50 years in quadruple MS-13 murders

MS-13 member gets 50-year prison sentence

An MS-13 gang member was sentenced to 50 years in prison for his part in the killing of four young men
in a Central Islip park when he was 15 years old in 2017. His defense attorney Martin Geduldig spoke
outside federal court in Central Islip on Monday. (Credit: Barry Sloan)

By Robert E. Kessler

robert.kessler@newsday.com

Updated September 9, 2019 9:48 PM

PRINT SHARE
An MS-13 member, just 15 at the time of the crime, was sentenced Monday to 50 years in prison for his
part in the killing of four young men in a Central Islip park — murders that helped shine a national
spotlight on the brutal gang from El Salvador.

Freiry Martinez apologized for his actions in federal court and told Judge Joseph Bianco: “From the
bottom of my heart, I feel very bad for the pain I have caused.” But he also asked for a lenient sentence,
saying he had matured since his arrest and adding: “I ask that you take into account, I was a … boy and
did not know what I did."

In the Central Islip courtroom watching were relatives of the victims, including the mother of Jose Tigre,
18. She cried throughout the proceeding. The father of Justin Llivicura, 16, was also there and both
parents, declined to speak in court or afterward.

In imposing sentence, Bianco said, while the parents chose not to speak, he could see on their faces “the
pain” they were enduring.

Martinez of Brentwood, who was known by the street names of “Freddy,” “Discreto,” and “Sovietico,”
pleaded guilty in September 2018 for his role in the killings, which even his defense attorney conceded in
court papers was “breathtaking in its violence.”

Prosecutors have charged six juveniles and four adults for taking part in what prosecutors called a
“frenzy of violence” in which the victims were “savagely attacked” with machetes, knives, clubs, tree
limbs, and an ax. They were lured to the park with the promise of smoking marijuana with two female
juvenile gang associates and were targeted because MS-13 thought they were part of a rival gang —
something their relatives deny.

Defense lawyer Martin Geduldig said he would appeal the sentence as excessive. In arguing for a 25-year
sentence, he had said the defendant's grandmother had sent Martinez from El Salvador to live with an
aunt on Long Island to get away from the gang in his native country.

“In a stunning turn of events, [he] quickly discovered his aunt lived in a community overwhelmed with
gang members,” Geduldig wrote in court papers. “Unfortunately the grandmother did not know that [he]
was being sent to one of the most dangerous hot spots in the United States.”
But Bianco said that while he felt Martinez’s remorse was genuine, his actions were so heinous that he
deserved the sentence he got.

Authorities identified the four victims as Michael Lopez Banagas, then 20, of Brentwood; Llivicura, of
East Patchogue; Tigre, of Bellport, and Jefferson Villalobos, 18, of Pompano Beach, Florida.

When Martinez pleaded guilty in September 2018, he admitted he used a machete to “hit someone
repeatedly … Justin Llivicura.”

The killings in April 2017 came after the murders in September 2016 of two teenage Brentwood High
School girls — Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas. The teens were bludgeoned to death with bats and
hacked with machetes by MS-13 gang members, authorities have said. The violent deaths prompted
President Donald Trump and then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to visit Long Island and vow to
crush the gang and the teens' parents were guests at the president's State of the Union speech in 2018.

The crackdown on MS-13 by the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force, HSI, and Nassau and Suffolk police
since the killings of the two girls and the park victims, has sharply reduced MS-13 activity on Long Island,
officials have said.

Eastern District United States Attorney Richard Donoghue said in a statement, “It is my hope that today’s
sentence brings some measure of closure and a sense of justice for the family members of the four
victims, whose lives were so senselessly cut short.”

Federal prosecutors on the case, John Durham, Paul Scotti and Justina Geraci, declined to comment
afterward.

The mastermind of the April 2017 killings, according to prosecutors, was Josue Portillo, who was also 15
at the time of the killings. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison for his role in the killings.
Before the attack, Portillio “had an altercation at a 7-11 convenience store with Witness-1 and several of
the other victims,” and told fellow gang members about it, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing
memorandum in the Martinez case.

The victims involved in the previous 7-Eleven incident were not identified. Nor was “Witness-1,” who,
prosecutors said, was lured to the park along with the victims by two female juvenile associates of MS-
13, under the guise of smoking marijuana. But “Witness-1” fled when the attack began, prosecutors said.

MS-13 thought the victims were members of the rival 18th Street gang, and “Witness-1” had
disrespected the gang by flashing MS-13 signs, as if he were a member of MS-13 gang, prosecutors said
in the court papers.

Parents of the victims denied that they were involved in any gang activity in the days following the
attack.

Martinez pleaded guilty to a single count of racketeering with five predicate acts: conspiracy to murder
rival gang members, and four individual counts of murder — one for each of the victims.

Prosecutors said in court papers that Martinez fled to Virginia and Maryland after the park killings and
wasn’t captured until seven months later, during which time he took part with MS-13 members in
assaults, “street-level drug sales, and participating in the armed robberies of check-cashing
establishments. “ Martinez also took a leadership position in one Virginia MS-13 clique while a fugitive,
prosecutors said.

Though both Martinez and Portillo were juveniles, prosecutors successfully argued that they should be
treated as adults because the killings and their previous actions for MS-13 showed that they were, in
effect, incorrigible.

“Most 15-year-olds are worried about a chemistry test at school or making the football team, not
plotting a grotesque attack and murder of four other teenagers,” the head of the FBI's New York office,
William Sweeney, said at the time of Martinez’s plea.
Juveniles can only be sentenced to prison until they are 21. Juveniles converted to adult status can face
up to life in prison, but not the death penalty.

Four adult members of MS-13 accused of involvement in the killings in the Central Islip park are awaiting
a decision by federal prosecutors as to whether to seek the death penalty in their cases.

They have been identified as: Alexis Hernandez, Santos Leonel Ortiz-Flores and Omar Villalta, all of
Central Islip, and Edwin Diaz, of Brentwood.

The adult members of MS-13 charged in the killings of Mickens and Cuevas, are also awaiting a similar
decision.

Newsday has reported that though federal prosecutors have convicted hundreds of MS-13 members on
Long Island since the early 2000s, the more recent spate of extreme violence has been attributed to an
influx of relatively young members of MS-13 from Central America, according to gang expert and
sources.

The newer younger gang members are a small fraction of the thousands of unaccompanied minors who
have entered the country since 2015. But these younger MS-13 members are more violent even by the
standards of older gang members and are anxious to prove their status to fill the vacuum left by ongoing
gang prosecutions and convictions.

Some Serial Killers Commit Murder For Profit

H.H. Holmes was the original American comfort/gain killer.

Posted Apr 20, 2015

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Wikipedia

Source: Wikipedia

Serial killers are quite varied in their motivations and they can be classified along those lines. Material
gain or a comfortable lifestyle are the primary motives of comfort/gain killers, which are perhaps the
oldest recognized and least complicated type of serial killers. Unlike hedonist lust killers such as Jeffrey
Dahmer who are motivated by sex, for example, these predators primarily seek financial gain and an
improved quality of life through the act of murder.

They were more common in past centuries, during times of anarchic disorder around the worldwide,
when the formal institutions of justice were weak and the value of life was lower than it is today. Pirates,
bandits, black widow husband poisoners, bluebeard wife murderers and landlady killers are vivid
examples of hedonist comfort/gain killers over the centuries (1).

Although there are certain similarities between this type of serial killer and hired assassins (professional
hit men), they are separate and distinct categories. Significantly, comfort/gain killers are not
professionals because they select their own targets and do not receive a salary from a third party for
committing murder. Instead, they commit murder in response to an emotional need for comfort or
security. In contrast, professional hit men kill because it is their job to do so. Hit men are emotionally
detached contract killers rather than self-serving serial killers.

Prior to becoming comfort/gain killers, such criminals are sometimes involved in (and may have previous
convictions for) theft, fraud, nonpayment of debts, embezzlement and other property crimes.
Frequently, the victims of such killers are family members or close acquaintances. After the murder of a
close friend or relative, a comfort killer will usually wait for a period of time before killing again to allow
any suspicions by those in close proximity to subside. They often use drugs or poison, and most notably
arsenic, to kill their victims (2).

The first serial killer to receive broad notoriety in the U.S. was Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, a charming and
ruthless comfort/gain killer who operated in Chicago during the late nineteenth century. Dr. H. H. Holmes
murdered his victims, mostly females, for life insurance policy settlements and related inheritance gains.
At the time of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, Holmes opened a hotel, dubbed the “Castle,” which he had
designed and built specifically for the purpose of murdering his guests.

The Castle featured secret dungeons, vaults, hidden passageways, torture chambers and gas chambers.
After the completion of the hotel, Holmes targeted his mostly female victims from among his employees
(many of whom were required to take out life insurance policies for which the premiums were paid by
Holmes and he was the sole beneficiary), as well as his wealthy lovers and hotel guests. He tortured and
killed many of them and disposed of their bodies in elaborate fashions.

In October 1894, after the custodian of the Castle informed law enforcement authorities that he was
suspiciously not allowed to clean the upper floors of the hotel, the police began a thorough investigation
that uncovered Holmes's efficient methods of committing murder and disposing of corpses, including
acid pits and a massive furnace in the basement. Upon arrest, Holmes confessed to twenty-seven
murders of which nine were confirmed but some investigators and criminologists believe that Holmes
may have actually murdered as many as 200 people. He was convicted of all charges and executed by
hanging in 1896.

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The murderous exploits of H.H. Holmes are now part of U.S. popular culture. They have been chronicled
in numerous books and films. Interest in Holmes's crimes was revived in 2003 by Erik Larson's best-
selling non-fiction book The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That
Changed America that juxtaposed an account of the planning and staging of the 1893 World's Fair with
Holmes's serial murder career.