In each case Macha told him about, the similarities were chilling: Each of the murders had occurred near a railroad track the killer had entered the homes of his victims through a window he had used a "weapon of opportunity" the assaults had all escalated to "overkill" and finally, each victim's body had been covered when authorities found it.Īuthorities, Kennedy was told, had a name and fingerprints, a manhunt was ongoing, and rewards were being offered nationwide. Unknown to Kennedy, there was a growing belief in the law enforcement community that the Mexican national, who made frequent visits to the United States, had committed murders from the Rio Grande to Illinois. "That was the first time I heard the name Resendiz." It immediately troubled her, she would later tell the chief, since Mason, well known for punctuality and impatience with those who lacked it, was always ready and waiting for her daily arrival. There had been no response when she knocked at the door. On the afternoon of October 2, 1998, Randy Kennedy, the town's 42-year-old police chief, received a call from a woman concerned about the well-being of 87-year-old Mason, whom she was to have given a ride to visit her sister at a nearby nursing home. And though it would take months to prove it, he also had left his bloody mark on little Hughes Springs. Before being apprehended, he had vented his homicidal rage in other cities in Texas, Illinois and Kentucky between August 1997 and June of last year, leaving nine dead.
#The railroad killer victims serial
In time Leafie Mason and her hometown would become a part of the violent legacy of a sadistic serial killer whom the media would elevate to Ted Bundy stature: Angel Maturino Resendiz, the 41-year-old freight-hopping drifter who last week was convicted of murder in the robbery, rape and slaying of 39-year-old Houston physician Claudia Benton. It has spurred the economy and lured new residents, and on a fall night in 1998, it brought death. The railroad is the reason for the existence of this quiet Piney Woods community of 1,938. Farther in the distance is a boxcar storage area and what was once one of this region's most active switching stations. Just beyond West First Street, yards away, runs the railroad track, a pathway for Kansas City Southern trains that hurry westward daily from Shreveport toward Dallas and back again. From the porch of her red brick home in Hughes Springs, poet Leafie Mason could stand watch over the energy that kept alive the small town she called home.
0 kommentar(er)
