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Can the strange case of Otto Steve Wilson,the LA Ripper,shine a light on his namesake?. When the basic details surrounding the case have been digested, i hope comparisons with the MO and signature of JtR persent themselves.
On the 15th of November 1944, in the city of Los Angeles, a chambermaid discovered the remains of a woman on the floor of a cheap hotel. The victim,who was later identified as Mrs Virginia Griffin, had been evicerated,one arm and one leg had been partially severed, and the breasts were removed. Hours later, at another hotel, a second dead body was discovered. Lillian Johnson had been cut from the throat to the left knee, and the face had been slashed. The witness descriptions of the suspected killer from both crimes were similar, and a man matching this description was subsequently arrested on suspicion while he was carousing with another woman in a nearby bar. Otto Steven Wilson was tall,slim,dark haired man of thirtythree, with a fashionable pencil thin moustache, who was then employed as a cook at Terminal Island and living a semi nomadic lifestyle in run down hotels. To the suprise of those who had seen his handy work,Wilson showed no obvious sign of mental illness, remaining calm and cognizant throughout his arrest and questioning,denying any knowledge of the crimes, but changing his mind and admitting the offences when confronted with evidence of his guilt. What can be gleaned concerning Wilson's psychopathology, which lies at the heart of the crimes signature element ?. When pressed for a motive, Wilson would claim that he struck Griffin unconcious after they had quarelled over money and then he attempted to dismember the body for purposes of disposal, as he fortified himself with slugs of whisky. When his cynical interviewers mentioned the fate of Lillian Johnson so soon after the first murder, Wilson admitted that the crimes were,as they had supected, committed for personal satisfaction;he had always been,he claimed, emotionally unstable, and a bit of a dreamer. Wilson would prove to have an impressive history of eccentric behaviour that was creeping inexorably towards homicide. Like many troubled souls, Wilson was the product of a broken home and was raised in an orphanage; the treatment he recieved in this institution and the effect on his developing psyche can only be guessed at. FBI profilers have noted that an unstable and emotionally arid childhood is not uncommon in violent offenders. Albert Fish,the werewolf of Wisteria,a homicidal paedophile and cannibal, was also the product of an orphanage and stated that witnessing persistent institutionalised violence at a young age had made an impression on him. In Wilsons case he would develop into a chronic sexual fantasist, who had long harboured a desire to " look inside a female and see what makes them tick ". He seems,at first,to have indulged his violent compulsions on his wife,as she divorced him for slashing her buttocks with a razor and licking the blood off. Blood may have played a important role in Wilson's fantasising,as,at a later date, Wilson was dismissed from the navy after being caught consuming blood plasma. Noted psychiatrist, Paul De River, who studied Wilson, and would later feature in the Black Dahlia investigation,could not decide whether Wilson was a sex maniac, or a sadist, displaying elements of a psychopathic and neurotic personality. Profiler Roy Hazelwood would doubtless regard Wilson as " lust killer", along with such personalities as Ted Bundy and Edmund Kemper.
On the 15th of November 1944, in the city of Los Angeles, a chambermaid discovered the remains of a woman on the floor of a cheap hotel. The victim,who was later identified as Mrs Virginia Griffin, had been evicerated,one arm and one leg had been partially severed, and the breasts were removed. Hours later, at another hotel, a second dead body was discovered. Lillian Johnson had been cut from the throat to the left knee, and the face had been slashed. The witness descriptions of the suspected killer from both crimes were similar, and a man matching this description was subsequently arrested on suspicion while he was carousing with another woman in a nearby bar. Otto Steven Wilson was tall,slim,dark haired man of thirtythree, with a fashionable pencil thin moustache, who was then employed as a cook at Terminal Island and living a semi nomadic lifestyle in run down hotels. To the suprise of those who had seen his handy work,Wilson showed no obvious sign of mental illness, remaining calm and cognizant throughout his arrest and questioning,denying any knowledge of the crimes, but changing his mind and admitting the offences when confronted with evidence of his guilt. What can be gleaned concerning Wilson's psychopathology, which lies at the heart of the crimes signature element ?. When pressed for a motive, Wilson would claim that he struck Griffin unconcious after they had quarelled over money and then he attempted to dismember the body for purposes of disposal, as he fortified himself with slugs of whisky. When his cynical interviewers mentioned the fate of Lillian Johnson so soon after the first murder, Wilson admitted that the crimes were,as they had supected, committed for personal satisfaction;he had always been,he claimed, emotionally unstable, and a bit of a dreamer. Wilson would prove to have an impressive history of eccentric behaviour that was creeping inexorably towards homicide. Like many troubled souls, Wilson was the product of a broken home and was raised in an orphanage; the treatment he recieved in this institution and the effect on his developing psyche can only be guessed at. FBI profilers have noted that an unstable and emotionally arid childhood is not uncommon in violent offenders. Albert Fish,the werewolf of Wisteria,a homicidal paedophile and cannibal, was also the product of an orphanage and stated that witnessing persistent institutionalised violence at a young age had made an impression on him. In Wilsons case he would develop into a chronic sexual fantasist, who had long harboured a desire to " look inside a female and see what makes them tick ". He seems,at first,to have indulged his violent compulsions on his wife,as she divorced him for slashing her buttocks with a razor and licking the blood off. Blood may have played a important role in Wilson's fantasising,as,at a later date, Wilson was dismissed from the navy after being caught consuming blood plasma. Noted psychiatrist, Paul De River, who studied Wilson, and would later feature in the Black Dahlia investigation,could not decide whether Wilson was a sex maniac, or a sadist, displaying elements of a psychopathic and neurotic personality. Profiler Roy Hazelwood would doubtless regard Wilson as " lust killer", along with such personalities as Ted Bundy and Edmund Kemper.