• Source: Frankford Slasher

The Frankford Slasher is the name given by the media to a possible serial killer who operated in and around the neighborhood of Frankford in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1985 to 1990. Leonard Christopher was convicted in the murder of one of the nine supposedly linked victims, but the others remain unsolved. All of the victims were sexually assaulted and stabbed to death. Several of the victims were seen with a middle-aged white man shortly before their murders.




Possible victims


Helen Patent, 52, killed August 19, 1985
Anna Carroll, 68, killed January 3, 1986
Suzanna Olszef, 64, killed December 25, 1986
Jeanne Durkin, 28, killed January 8, 1987
Catherine M. Jones, 29, killed January 1987 (connection to other murders is disputed)
Margaret Vaughan, 66, killed November 11, 1988
Theresa Sciortino, 30, killed January 19, 1989
Carol Dowd, 46, killed April 29, 1990 (Leonard Christopher was convicted of her murder)
Michelle Dehner, 30, killed September 6, 1990 (Occurred while Leonard Christopher was in jail)




Leonard Christopher


During the investigation into the death of Carol Dowd, Leonard Christopher, an employee at a nearby fish market, became a suspect. Despite the fact that he did not match the witness's description of Dowd being seen with a middle-aged white man before her death, and that there was no evidence to link him to any of the other eight murders, and only circumstantial evidence linking him to Dowd's murder, he was tried and convicted of one count of first degree murder on December 12, 1990, and sentenced to life in prison. He has since died of cancer, maintaining his innocence since the beginning.
Also noteworthy is the fact that a ninth victim, Michelle Dehner, was stabbed to death in the same fashion as the other women while Christopher was serving his life sentence in prison. However, Dehner's murder was ruled a "copycat killing" by detectives.




See also


Crime in Philadelphia
General:

List of fugitives from justice who disappeared
List of serial killers in the United States




References

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Frankford Slasher
• Frankford, Philadelphia
• List of serial killers in the United States
• List of nicknames of serial killers
• List of serial killers by number of victims
• Crime in Philadelphia
• John J. Williams (politician)
• List of Nestlé brands
• List of kidnappings: 1990–1999
• MIL-STD-1168