Arthur Shawcross was a serial killer in Rochester NY from 1972-1989

He was born in Kittery, Maine on June 6, 1945 the first of four children to father Arthur Roy Shawcross and mother Elizabeth Yerakes Shawcross who went by Betty. The family moved to Watertown, New York when he was young.

As a child he was a frequent bed wetter which is one of the Macdonald triad. He claims that his mother sexually assaulted him by inserting object inside of him. He also claims that his aunt performed oral sex on him when he was 9 years old. His family has denied all of these claims saying that he had a good childhood and liked to make up stories. When Arthur was asked about the claims he could never keep his story straight however we do not know who is telling the truth.

During his teenage years Arthur would act out violently in school and was known as a bully. He claims during this time he was having sexual relations with his sister. In 1960 Arthur dropped out of high school.

In April 1967, at the age of 21, Arthur was drafted into the United States Army. He would claim to have been in combat and killed and ate people. However he never served in a combat position. After the war Arthur was stationed in Oklahoma where he had a penchant for starting fires, an Army psychiatrist said that Arthur derived sexual arousal from setting fires, another part of the triad. Arthur returned to his hometown of Watertown, NY

On May 7, 1972 he abducted 10 year old Jack Owen Blake luring him into the woods. Jack was not found until authorities received a tip on September 5th. He was found in a shallow grave outside town, beaten to death and sexually abused. On September 2nd just before Jack’s body was discovered Arthur had sexually assaulted and suffocated 8 year old Karen Ann Hill. She was found with grass stuffed in her nose and mouth. Arthur was an immediate suspect due to witnesses seeing him with Karen on the day she disappeared. He was taken into custody on October 3, 1972 and he stalled for two weeks before finally confessing.

On October 17, 1972 Arthur was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter for both deaths. He was sentenced to a maximum of 25 years. After 14 years of imprisonment it was determined that Arthur was no longer dangerous even though he was assessed to be a “schizoid psychopath” He was paroled in April 1987.

After being released Arthur had a hard time settling down anywhere due to everyone knowing who he was and what he’d done. He moved from Binghamton, NY to Delhi then to Fleischmanns before in June 1987, his parole officer moved him to Rochester without notifying local authorities and sealed his record.

In March 1988, Arthur began murdering again, his primary targets being sex workers in the Rochester area.
He would pick up sex workers a few times a week and became a regular around the area.

Police found a 27 year old sex worker in the Genesee River floating beneath the ice. It was the body of Dorothy Blackburn, Arthur had strangled her saying it was self defense because she had bitten his penis.

In September 1988 another sex worker was found in the Genesee River. It was Anna Steffen, she had been drowned and her body had floated down river where she got caught in debris and rapidly decomposed due to the warmer temperatures.

In October 1989 a body of a 59 year old homeless woman was found, it was discovered to be Dorothy Keeler, Arthur was having an affair with Dorothy. He said they had gone to the river to fish where Dorothy told him she was going to expose their affair to which Arthur got upset and beat her with a log, he hid her body under a tree and a few months later returned to the scene and removed her skull and dumped it in the river. It is still missing to this day.

On October 27, 1989 Patricia Ives body was found. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted by Arthur who claims she was trying to steal his wallet.

The press ran the story hoping to find leads and named him the Genesee River Killer. Authorities warned sex workers to be cautious and report if they saw anything. The police looked into anyone in the area who had a record hoping to find a suspect but Arthur Shawcross had his record sealed. Meanwhile more sex workers were disappearing. When police spoke to sex workers they said they knew someone that they thought could be the Genesee River Killer but they did not know his real name.

November 11, 1989 the body of Frances Brown was found in the Genesee River gorge. Arthur claims she choked on his penis during oral sex. He pushed her down the embankment where she was covered in debris, when the police discovered her body they thought she was intentionally buried.

In November 1989 another sex worker went missing, Maria Welch was 22 years old and Arthur claimed he killed her because she also tried to steal his wallet but later changed his story saying he killed her when he found out she was menstruating. He dumped her body in some bushes near the river.

On Thanksgiving Day a body of a 26 year old woman was found with the same M.O as the others but she was also cut open from her throat to her groin. She was identified as June Stott, she was a friend of Arthur and it was said she was mentally handicapped, Arthur said they went down by the river and began making love when he made a comment that June was not a virgin she started yelling and he placed his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet but soon realized he had suffocated her. He claimed to have removed her vagina and some of her organs and ate them. She wasn’t reported missing for three weeks.

November 27th Elizabeth Gibson body was found in Wayne County. Arthur claimed she also tried to steal his wallet so he strangled her and disposed of her body in a new area for fear that the police were getting to close.

In November 1989 Arthur picked up 32 year old Darlene Trippi to have oral sex, when he failed to get an erection Arthur said she became frustrated and called him names so he strangled her. He dumped her body in open woodlands.

In December 1989 Arthur killed 34 year old June Cicero, they went into the woods to have sex where Arthur strangled her and dumped her body off the bridge over the Salmon River. Two days later he returned with a small hand saw and cut the vagina from her frozen body and ate it.

The final victim was another prostitute, 19 year old Felicia Stephens was found in the Genesee River on January 3, 1990 Arthur said he did not remember any details about killing her just that he dumped her in the same area as Dorothy Blackburn and June Cicero.

On December 31, 1989 hikers discovered a pair of jeans with Felicia Stephens I.D in the pocket. In January 1990 they had a helicopter do a search of the area looking for her.

The helicopter continued to search two days later and spotted a man on the bridge next to a van, he appeared to be masturbating. Authorities took the man into custody, they took a photo to show to the sex workers to see if they could get a positive I.D and they confirmed he was Arthur Shawcross. When they questioned him he refused to confess to any of the killings except for the children he had already served time for. Police brought in his girlfriend Clara for questioning and noticed she had jewelry on that resembled that of one of the victims. They took this information to Arthur saying they would implicate Clara in the murder. Arthur finally confessed to the murders plus 2 more the police did not know about.

The trial was in November 1990, Arthur was tried by Monroe County for 10 murders. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, with testimony from Forensic psychiatrist Dorothy Lewis that he had brain damage, multiple personality disorder, and post traumatic stress disorder and had been sexually abused as a child. He was found guilty and sentenced to 250 years in prison.

In 2003 he was interviewed by British reporter Katherine English for a documentary on cannibalism. He bragged about slicing out and eating the vulvae of three victims, but refused to discuss his earlier claim of eating the genitals of his first victim, Jack Blake.

On November 10, 2008 Arthur Shawcross complained of a pain in his leg, he was taken to the hospital where he went into cardiac arrest and died at the age of 63.