NY NY - The Alphabet Killings, Rochester

Steely Dan

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The Alphabet Killings or Double Initial killings as some call them occurred in the Rochester area in the early 70's. They are called the Alphabet Killings because all three victims had double initials. 10 year old Carmen Colon's body was found in Chili (Rochesterarians pronounce it Chy-lie), 11 year old Wanda Walkowicz's body was found in Webster and 11 year old Michelle Maenza was found in Macedon. All three had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. This is Rochester's most infamous unsolved murders and one of the countries most fascinating unsolved murders.

It was believed at one time that Kenneth Bianchi may have been the killer because he lived in the Rochester area at the time but Bianchi denies it.

Here's a couple of articles. I thought it was a three part series of articles but only two are on the D&C website. Here's the first article about them.

Part #2

Fascinating case that is still unsolved.

Anyhoo, I felt this was a great article for the Websleuthers to read.

It's most likely somebody in authority who could lure the girls into his car and IMO, had access to names so he could get the girls with double initials. It was no accident IMO that he knew going in that the girls had double initial names.
 
Thanks for posting the updates on these murders, Steely. My first awareness of these was after seeing them profiled on a crime show. (maybe something like 48 hrs mystery, not sure).

It is curious that the suspects have not shown to be the right man. I would assume they ran the DNA profile through the system of known offenders?

What is scary is if they did, he's not in there. If he's not deceased himself, I would think he has moved on and is still killing, perhaps changing his MO.
 
Interesting case Steely Dan. I'm going to have to look into it more.

I just read, so far, the 'picture' section where it just gave little blurps of clues.

All have double letter of the alphabet name beginning.
Location where they were found began with same letter.
All three were Catholic.
All three had learning disabilities.

There may be more.

Intriguing,
fran
 
Thanks for posting this Steely Dan~ I'd never heard of these murders.
 
It's something that has been sticking in the craw of law enforcement the victims families and all Rochestarians who know about this. It's cool how they're knocking away suspects by using DNA now but every time it doesn't match it's just more and more frustrating.
 
It's very promising that LE has been open to ideas/tips they've received.
 
Yeah I watched this movie. I wish they had made it a little more true to life though.

How was it? When I heard the synopsis for the movie I didn't want to see it. If they had made it more true to life I would have watched it too.

The films grand opening was in Rochester and I think Eliza came to town for it.
 
if all three were catholic, maybe they attended a camp/school/church type event, where there names would have been known.. ie like a camp counselor
 
if all three were catholic, maybe they attended a camp/school/church type event, where there names would have been known.. ie like a camp counselor

That sounds like a reasonable idea- did the girls attend the same church or different parishes that may have held joined camps or anything like that?
 
If they want to merge them they can. I did a search for it but didn't find anything. The local newspaper was running a series on this and that's why I started a new thread and linked the articles.

Sorry.
 
How was it? When I heard the synopsis for the movie I didn't want to see it. If they had made it more true to life I would have watched it too.

The films grand opening was in Rochester and I think Eliza came to town for it.

The movie was okay...however I felt it focused more on Eliza's supposed break-down than the murders themselves. And the ending was one of those "yeah, right" kinds.
 
http://tinyurl.com/5yp35z

Here is a newspaper report on one of the suspects of the Alphabet Murders.

Thanks, he was absolved of the three alphabet murders but convicted on one little girl the police believe had no connection to the other three.


Last year, through DNA, police linked a Florida man, James Pressler, to the 1976 unsolved rape and strangulation of 7-year-old Michelle McMurray in Rochester — the oldest Rochester cold case apparently solved by DNA. Pressler, 76, was charged with second-degree murder but died in a Florida jail of an apparent heart attack before he could be extradited and tried. Police did not suspect Michelle was a victim of the double initial killer because of differences in her age and other distinct differences with those three crimes.


Link
 
I sent this message to the Monroe County Sheriff's department tonight. I'll let you know if I get any response from them.

On the alphabet murders somebody brought up that since all the girls were Catholic that there may be a link between them that one person had access to. Like a camp or a church or a charity. A Priest or Social Worker would be trusted and also have access to the names of these girls. It seems to me that the person who did this had to have easy access to these kids names.

I know this isn't really a crime tip as much as a theory but this is the only heading that made sense to put it under. I'm pretty sure this theory has been checked out but if it hasn't I just wanted to pass it along. It came from someone at the Websleuths message board. http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3422282#post3422282

I know LE may not take these sites seriously but there are some smart and creative people there with interesting theories on crimes. If somebody wanted to add some facts to the thread that might get the wheels turning in some people's heads it might be worth it to check out.

Just trying to help out,

 
With there being 3 victims I had to wonder if each one of the initials represents one of theirs, or possibly the person he was fixated on and wanted to kill over and over. CWM I wonder if there has ever been a suspect with those initials?

VB
 

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