Cincinnati Strangler

As victims, the perpetrator chose women between the ages of 31 and 81, living in Cincinnati's various housing complexes, which were inhabited by poor residents of the city. In five of the seven murders, the victims were sexually assaulted. The first victim was a 56-year-old Emogene Harrington, who was strangled to death on December 2, 1965. Four months later, on April 4, 1966, 58-year-old Lois Dant was found strangled, raped and beaten in her ground floor apartment. She was talking to a friend on the phone and hung up when there was a knock on the door, which, according to the investigators, was made by her killer. On June 10th, the Strangler attacked 56-year-old Matilda Jeannette Messer in one of the city's parks, beating, raping and subsequently strangling her. After killing her, the criminal tied Messer's dog to a tree in the immediate vicinity of the body. The next victim of the serial killer was 31-year-old Barbara Bowman, who was attacked on August 14th. She had been to a bar that day, after which she called a taxi to drive her home. After the car arrived, Bowman got in. The driver was described as a young African-American man. Less than two blocks from her apartment, she was attacked by the cabbie, and stabbed in the throat seven times. She died shortly after the police arrived, but witnesses managed to describe the criminal and even write down his license plate. However, due to her age and the fact that the culprit had used a knife, Bowman was initially dropped from the list of victims, but later re-included. During the investigation, it was established that the perpetrator was travelling in a taxi belonging to the Yellow Cab Company, number 186, which was reported stolen to the police a few hours before Bowman's murder. At age 31, she was the youngest of the killer's victims. On October 11th, the newly-dubbed "Cincinnati Strangler" killed 51-year-old Alice Hochhausen. Nine days later, on October 20th, 61-year-old Rose Winstsel was found beaten and strangled in her apartment. On December 9th, the criminal attacked 81-year-old Lula Kerrick in the elevator of her downtown apartment building, during which he beat and strangled her with one of her own stockings.[3][4]

The series of murders caused a moral panic among the Cincinnati population, as a result of which the city recorded a colossal increase in sales of weapons and doorlocks, the level of confidence among girls and women dropped sharply, and the Cincinnati police announced that a special operation to capture the perpetrator.[4]

On December 9, 1966, after the murder of Kerrick, 22-year-old Sandra Chapas contacted the police, claiming that a few hours before the Kerrick killing, she was followed by a suspicious black man to her car, who promptly attempted to rape her on the stairwell of her apartment, but was thankfully saved by her neighbor. Chapas and a few other witnesses remembered the license plate of the car which the offender was driving and passed it on to the police. On that same day, the car's owner, 29-year-old Posteal Laskey Jr., a laborer, was arrested. Laskey was living with his mother and in his free time tried to build a career as a musician, acting as a guitarist in a little-known group. Shortly before his arrest, he had left his house and rented an apartment in another part of the city, where he was living with a friend.[4][5]

After digging into his past, police discovered that Laskey had been prosecuted for attacking a woman in 1965, and sentenced to three years' probation in October 1965.[6] It was also revealed that Laskey worked as a taxi driver for the Yellow Cab Company from July to December 1962, when all cars used identical ignition keys, and he drove number 186. The company management told the police that after his dismissal, Posteal pocketed the ignition key and a number of other items that he was supposed to hand over. On the night of August 13, 1966, and on the following morning, after the numbered 186 cab was stolen, somebody answered the dispatcher's calls, and then picked up Barbara Bowman. After surveying visitors to the bar, witnesses told that they had seen Bowman leaving and entering into a taxi. After being presented with photos of the suspect, they identified Posteal Laskey as the driver, and Barbara's likely murderer.[7]

After the arrest, 69-year-old Delle Ernst contacted the police, proclaiming that Laskey had robbed her on October 4, 1966. A similar testimony was given by Virginia Hinners, who said that Posteal had robbed her on September 21st that same year.[8]

Based on the circumstantial evidence and testimony,[7] in April 1967, Posteal Laskey Jr. was convicted of killing Barbara Bowmand and was sentenced to death in the electric chair. The date of his execution was set for July 8, 1968, but by that time his lawyers appealed the verdict, citing the fact that the presumption of his innocence was violated when the Posteal was vilified by the prosecutor's office and the media as the infamous serial killer, which they failed to prove in court. The intense publicity surrounding the case had prevented their client from receiving a fair trial, but the court rejected the appeal, stating that there was no racial or social prejudice in the decision. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court, in June 1972, commuted Laskey's sentence to life imprisonment with a chance of parole.[1][9]

For the rest of his life, Laskey was moved around various penitentiaries in the state. He applied for parole on several occasions, but was denied each time.[10] In February 2007, the 69-year-old was once again denied parole and banned him from applying until 2017. However, he died on May 29, 2007, after spending more than 40 years behind bars.[11]

• List of serial killers in the United States

• Townsend, J. T. (August 1997). "The Legacy of the Cincinnati Strangler". Cincinnati. 30 (11): 30–36. Retrieved August 21, 2015.
• Townsend, J. T. (2012). "Terror in the Gaslight District: Alice Hochhausen Falls Victim to the Cincinnati Strangler: 1966". Queen City Gothic: Cincinnati's Most Infamous Murder Mysteries (revised ed.). Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse. pp. 327–362. ISBN 9781467057127. OCLC 891380967.