Robert Keller - True Crime: American Monsters Vol. 2: 12 Horrific American Serial Killers (Serial Killers US)

The Trash Bag Killer

Murder excited me and gave me a feeling of dominance. - Patrick Kearney

The Seventies were a tumultuous decade in American history. After the summer of love in 1969, a new and more tolerant era beckoned. The whole country seemed to be in motion and many young people were drawn to California, attracted by its great weather, carefree lifestyle and permissive attitudes.

Hitchhiking was a popular mode of transport for these young travelers and, in the main, those who stuck out their thumb and headed west, arrived safely. Others though, were not so lucky. During that time, a number of prolific serial killers prowled the highways and byways of southern California - men like Randy Kraft, William Bonin and Patrick Kearney.

Patrick Wayne Kearney was born in East Los Angeles in 1940, the youngest of three sons. His childhood appears to have been relatively stable, at least as far as his home life was concerned. At school, though, he was an easy target for bullies a thin, sickly and diminutive child who was painfully shy.

Like many children set upon by their peers, Patrick retreated into his own world, although where other kids might lose themselves in books or games, Kearney (according to his later confession) began developing violent revenge fantasies. By age eight, he said, he knew that he was going to kill people; by his mid teens his fantasies had developed into keenly detailed visions of murder. By his mid-twenties, those fantasies had been transformed into reality.

Yet, nothing in Patrick Kearneys life suggested that he might become a serial killer. He was an intelligent boy, who did well at school. After graduating, he served in the military, married and moved with his wife to Texas. Then, after his marriage failed, he met and fell in love with David Douglas Hill, a 6'2 high school dropout from Lubbock, Texas.

Like Kearney, Hill had spent time in the Army, but hed been discharged after being diagnosed with an unspecified personality disorder. Hed returned to his hometown and married his high school sweetheart. Then hed met Patrick Kearney and, not long after, hed divorced his wife and moved with Kearney to California.

In 1967, the pair set up house together, Kearney finding a job as an aeronautics engineer with the Hughes Aircraft Corporation, Hill staying home and looking after domestic affairs. Their relationship, which would last ten years, was often stormy. Hill would often leave in a huff and spend the night with friends or pick up a one-night stand out of revenge. Occasionally, he even went back home to Lubbock, remaining there for days at a time.

It was on these occasions, with Hill out of the picture, that Kearney's repressed rage would simmer to the surface. That was when hed hit the streets, cruising the interstate or trawling gay bars, picking out victims who often reminded him of those who had bullied him during his childhood.

Kearneys M.O. was simple, efficient and consistent. He was primarily a necrophile, meaning he had no interest in keeping his victim alive for torture or any other purpose (unlike his contemporaries Kraft and Bonin). Also, he was a slight man, just 5'5 tall, unable to physically subdue victims who tended to be bigger and physically stronger than him. The method he developed compensated for both these factors

After picking up a man, Kearney would typically shoot him in the head with his Derringer .22. Hed do this while still driving the car in order to catch his victim by surprise. He became particularly adept at steering the car with his left hand while firing with his right. With the victim now under his control, Kearney would drive to a secluded spot where hed have sex with the corpse. Then hed dismember the body with a hacksaw, place the sections in trash bags and dispose of them in various locations along the freeways, or out in the desert, where coyotes and insects would consume the remains.

On the occasions that he killed people in his own home, he would dissect the body in the bathtub, drain it of blood and wash the body parts carefully. Then hed pack the pieces in bags secured with duct tape. He was very careful not to leave any trace evidence, something hed learned by studying various books on serial killers.

How many men did Kearney kill in this way? He was charged with 21 murders and confessed to 35. Investigators who worked the case believed the number could be as high as 43. And there were child victims too, among them eight-year-old Merle Chance, and Ronald Dean Smith, aged just 5.

Kearney committed his first murder in 1968, while living in Culver City, California, with David Hill. During one of Hills absences, Kearney picked up a man he knew only as George. He brought George back to his apartment, shooting him almost immediately after they entered. Then, he dragged the body to the bathroom and dismembered it with an X-Acto knife. He then extracted the bullet from the head so that it couldnt be traced to his gun. Later, he buried the remains behind his garage and didnt kill again for a year, fearful that hed be caught.