The Forgotten Forty-Four: Victims and Survivors of America’s First Serial Sex Killer

Denise Beddows
Works of: Non-fiction

In the 1920s, America’s first recorded serial sex killer was believed to have strangled 22 victims all across the continent from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast, until his arrest in Canada. The author’s research, however, suggests he attacked at least twice that number.

Whilst much has been written about the necrophile whom the press dubbed the ‘dark strangler’ and the ‘gorilla killer’, his tragic victims, mis-named in many accounts, have been largely ignored.

The victims – one being the author’s ancestor – and those women and girls who survived his attacks, are presented here as individuals, along with an account of the odd life and ironically appropriate death of Earle Leonard Nelson.

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