- Hello again, how are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian,
and today is Monday, which means it's Murder
Mystery Makeup Monday. (Bailey Sarian humming) If you are new here, hi, how are you? I hope you're doing great. Every Monday, I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin,
(tongue clicking) and I do my makeup at the same time. If you're interested in true
crime and you like makeup, I would highly suggest you
hit that subscribe button, 'cause I'm here for you every Monday. And I upload on Saturdays as well if you want to check that out. So last week, I talked
about Giulia Tofana. Aqua Tofana, Aqua Tofana, Aqua Tofana. She, you know, possibly may
have killed a lot of people, and it was a very interesting story. I'm glad that a lot of you
found it interesting as well, because was she the bad guy? (muttering and clicking)
That was debatable, but this week, I have... Okay, look, side note really quick. I've really been into researching more and talking more about serial killers, so I just kind of been talking
a lot about serial killers, and today, I have another
one, it's not funny. So I have another serial killer if you don't mind, thank you so much. It's my channel, let me do what I want. And I had never heard of this guy before, but he did a lot of damage,
and he was pretty sick. Warning, the following presentation is intended for mature audiences. It contains graphic
descriptions of crime scenes, adult dialogue, and strong language. Viewer discretion is advised. If you're ever curious
as to what I'm using, I do link it down in the
description box down below, but other than that, I will
shut up and get right into it. Arthur, okay? Arthur Shawcross. He was born June 6th, 1945 in Maine, and he was actually the
oldest of four children. Now, some would say
that Arthur was destined to be a serial killer, okay, and that he had the classic
sociopathic behavior: bedwetting, arson, he suffered
several head injuries, and seemed to have a
love hate relationship with his parents. This combination made
a man so full of rage that the only question
was not if he would kill, but when he would kill. Now, when Arthur was young, his family decided to move
to Watertown, New York, and that's when the problems
really started to happen. In school, Arthur was just very awkward, and shy, and quiet, and it was very difficult
for him to make friends and be accepted by the fellow classmates. According to Arthur's family, I mean, he seemed to be more of the
aggressive type in school. He kind of went from
being the shy awkward one to turning into this class bully, and he would have these crazy, uncontrolled, violent outbursts. So later on, Arthur would do an interview, and kind of explain just
his upbringing and whatnot, and he would claim that
he was sexually abused at a very young age by his mother, and that his mother would
just insert foreign objects into his, you know... Also, on top of that, his
aunt, or I'm sorry, his aunt performed oral sex on him
when he was nine years old. And then Arthur said, when
he was in junior high school, he had sexual relations with his sister. Now, in contrast to that,
his parents and siblings said that he had a
really normal childhood, that these events he
described were just stories, he was making them up, he
had a wild imagination, and he was just always telling stories. His mom, especially just
denied, denied, denied that any of this happened. You just don't know who to believe. There's no way of knowing
whose version is the truth. What was clear was that Arthur would constantly change his stories when he was being
questioned or interviewed by professionals during the investigation. I don't want to discredit him at all, but at the same time, you don't know. Now, it's said that
Arthur had a very low IQ. I know there's mixed
opinions about the IQ test, and if it's legit or not. Let's just pretend it
matters, I don't know. How come serial killers,
they always know their IQ? So Arthur, low IQ. That led to him dropping out of school. He just didn't do well, he
didn't have any friends, he wasn't social. At the age of 19, Arthur
enlisted into the US army, and then he was drafted to Vietnam where his sadistic tendencies
seem to have flourished, or maybe it was just the
fact that he had freedom? While in Vietnam, Arthur
said that he had raped, killed and ate two Vietnamese girls during a combat mission
on his tour of duty. There is absolutely no evidence
to prove that this is true. However, he also claimed
a combat kill of 39, which when investigated
later would also prove to be a lie. Authorities claim he killed
no one on his tour of duty, but Arthur stands by the
fact he killed people when he was out there, and he killed innocent women as well, which weird brag, but okay. Now, back in like his civilian life, Arthur actually married a
total of four different times, and he did have children, but all of his marriages ended in divorce because of his anger issues, and he also never had a
relationship with the children. Now, while in his third marriage, Arthur moved back to New York. And in 1972, this is when he would abduct a son of the neighbor. Now, this little boy
was only 10 years old. Arthur somehow lured this little boy into a wooded area nearby, and that's where he proceeded
to suffocate the little boy until he passed away. And then after that, that's when Arthur sexually assaulted him as well. Sadly, it would be five months until someone found the poor
boy's body in the wooded area. A lot of people though
were searching for him, it was everywhere in the town, they just couldn't find it, the body. Once this little boy's body was found, that's when pathologists, they would realize that
the boy's genitals, they had been bitten off. When police had gone around and questioned any witnesses or family members, Arthur's name was actually brought up, because a few days prior to
this little boy's disappearance, Arthur had actually taken him out fishing. So, I mean, Arthur seemed
to be the last person to actually see him. When police go and question Arthur, he denied any knowledge of this
little boy's disappearance, and just denied, denied, denied, and they didn't have any
reason to further question him. I don't know why, but they just didn't. Four months later, after
the first little boy's body was found, a body of an eight year old girl was discovered under a bridge. Now, it was seen that like she
had been raped and murdered, and there was mud and
leaves and other debris that had been shoved down her throat. Also, it was all shoved in her clothing as if they were trying to make her one with the leaves or something? I don't know, hide her? It's disturbing. Once again, when police and investigators were questioning people
about any witnesses, give us something, Arthur's name was brought up again because neighbors recalled seeing Arthur with this young girl hanging
out around the bridge area. This time, police actually
brought Arthur into questioning and really pressed him for the answers, because I mean, come on. What are the chances that
he was the last person to be seen with these two
kids before they went missing? So they bring him in October, 1972, and that's when Arthur actually
confessed to both killings. Now, he initially
confessed to both murders, but due to lack of evidence, Arthur's lawyers were able to plea bargain a dropping of the first boy's case. In October of 1972, Arthur pled guilty to manslaughter of the second victim, avoiding a first degree murder sentencing. Arthur was sentenced
to 25 years in prison, and that's the end end of the story. Just kidding, psych! Of course not. This case will disappoint
you on so many levels because all of this could
have been prevented. It kind of seems that way
with a lot of these cases, but this one for sure, 100%
could have been prevented, could have been avoided,
could have been stopped. Just wait, okay? Okay, Arthur only ended
up serving 15 years of that 25-year sentence
due to good behavior, and in March of 1987, he ended up moving to Binghamton, New York. And unfortunately for Arthur, neighbors knew who he
was and what he had done. They would shame him publicly, just made him very
uncomfortable, not welcome, and just everyone knew
him for what he had done. So then he just moved to
two different communities, but the people would cause a ruckus no matter where he tried to
go, and this frustrated him. He's like, why me? Hey guys, this isn't fair, you guys. This is the part that I just don't quite fully understand how, why, when, but Arthur had talked
to his parole officers and expressed to them the
struggles that he was having. He couldn't find somewhere to live, no one was welcoming him to the community, he couldn't get into the
swing of things again, because everybody knew who he was. Parole authorities, they
actually smuggled him into Rochester, New York, and to prevent Arthur from not fitting in with the community and
with everybody else, they actually ended up
coming up with a solid plan to get Arthur in, just get
them going again, right? So they're like, okay,
here's what we're gonna do. Let's not tell anyone about
Arthur's past or alert police. They sealed his criminal record so that it was no longer available to law enforcement agencies, so if you looked up his name, normally, it would pull
up everything about you. You did this shit, you did this shit, you did this shit for X amount of time. This point, it's on his record, right? But they decided let's lock
down your criminal record. Let's shut it down so
people can't pull you up and they can't see your past, and then you'll be able to
live a happy perfect life because no one will know. Yeah, I was confused because it's like, why would authorities
agree to this, you know? That to me just didn't make
any sense, but they did it. I mean, of course Arthur
was happy about it. He's like, hell yeah, my
record is sealed shut. No one will know. So he's stoked, but little
did authorities know, well, they should have known that this was gonna
cause some big problems. Anyhow, so he moves to this new location and he settles in quite nicely, he's really liking it there. People had no idea who he was, police, they weren't on his ass
or doing check-ins with him. Arthur could go back to
living a normal peaceful life like nothing ever happened. During this time, Arthur was working just small, little one-off jobs, anything to make some money. He had a girlfriend at this time, but apparently, their relationship
wasn't going too well, and Arthur just loved love,
and he loved attention. He just wasn't happy in this relationship, and he just felt like, hey, you know what? There's some sex workers nearby, I'll go get me some love, so he did. He would get sex workers
a couple of times a week. He was a regular in the area, and a lot of the local sex
workers knew who he was, and sadly, his murderous
ways came right back. I mean, not even a full year later, like a couple months later,
can you believe that? What kind of... In March of 1988, police
discovered the body of a 27-year-old sex worker
in the Genesee river. They found her body floating underneath the ice in a floating stream, so, you know, there's a stream and ice. They were able to get her out, and they saw that she had
bite marks in her lower area, and she had strangulation
marks across her neck. We've got a biter, we've got a biter. Now, it was noted that whoever had done it was sneaking back to the
body weeks after the murder, and they would cut out and eat pieces of the decomposing body. There was little to no evidence and no witnesses to help close that case, and it went unsolved for over a year. In September of 1989, the discovery of another sex worker's body was found. Now, she also had bite marks and strangulation marks on her neck, but because her body was found pretty far from where the others were, authorities just didn't think
it was a serial killer at all. And then in October of 1989, the body of a 59-year-old
homeless woman was discovered. And then six days later, another sex worker was
found, both in the same area. Both of the women had
strangulation marks on their neck. Once the press gets hold of this, they run the stories, and
like the press always does, they have to give him a nickname, so they call him the Genesee River Killer, not to be confused with
the Green River Killer. He also went by The River Monster. Oh, because I don't know
if I mentioned this, but the bodies were found
in the Genesee river. You know, this is a side note. I know I pronounce
everything wrong, I'm aware. I truly try my best. I looked up how to pronounce Genesee, because kind of looks like Genesee, and I've actually heard
both pronunciations. and then I also heard Genesue. Choose which one you like
and let's go with that. I'm just a normal ass person, you know? I don't know how to pronounce
everything on the planet. It gets kind of confusing, because there are like
a lot of river killers. So anyways, authorities felt
like whoever this killer was had to have some kind of
criminal or military experience. So authorities ended up going around the local sex workers in the area, and they told them just to be careful. Somebody's out there, unfortunately, you guys are the target. Now, this is when
authorities would go through and check criminal records for offenders who might be living in the immediate area. Now, remember, Arthur's
record was sealed shut, so when authorities are going through and looking at all the
different people in the location trying to figure out who could it be? Are they here? They got nothing. They got nothing because the people that were being pulled up weren't Arthur, because his record was sealed shut. Over time, more and more sex
workers continued to disappear, and it became apparent that the killer must be someone familiar to the women who worked in the area. So police did go down and question a lot of the sex workers and asked, who could this person be? Regular clients who maybe
show signs of aggression? The more sex workers they asked, they kind of got the same
name, which was Mitch or Mike. They said, we don't get
to know our clients. You know, we're just here to
do our job and then we're done. But Mitch or Mike seemed to be the name associated with this
person who was very angry. He was prone to violence, and
he was super intimidating. Investigator's like,
okay, it kind of sounds like it could be probably the guy. Then on Thanksgiving Day, the body of a 26-year-old woman was found. When they found her
body, they see that she had been strangled, sexually abused, and lower area was cut
up, parts were removed, and then on top of that,
to make things even worse, she was cut from her throat
all the way down to her crotch, which is something that is done to drain the blood of animals. So the body count just
kept growing and growing, and then finally, police asked for assistance from the FBI profilers. The FBI did come up with a profile of who they thought this man was. They thought it was a white male in his twenties or thirties. He must be very strong. They think that he had a
previous criminal record. He had to be familiar with the area, and comfortable enough with the victims that they would enter his
vehicle without any question. Authorities believed the injury
inflicted on the last victim and not any of the previous victims told them that the killer was becoming more and more comfortable around corpses, and was probably returning
to the crime scenes to relive the attack. On November 27th, another body was found, but this time, they felt like they got a little bit of a breakthrough, because the suspect Mitch
had been seen with her shortly before her disappearance, but they seem to not
get really any closer. At least they knew, okay,
this Mitch guy is around, and he's the one responsible for it. And then in December, so
not even that long after, and it's 1989, a pair of jeans were
discovered near the river, and inside the pocket of the jeans was an ID card that belonged to a woman. Investigators are thinking,
this woman is probably a victim to the serial killer that's going around. So police began an aerial
search of the surrounding area, then in January of 1990, a
helicopter was going around, (imitating helicopter) helicopter, looking for either a person,
just something, right? So they're going around
and they actually spot what seemed to be a naked woman's body, and it was laying on the ice surface of the river by the bridge in the forest. The body that they had
found was not the woman that the ID card that they found, but instead, it was a missing sex worker. Sadly, this woman had also
been just cut in half. I don't know how else to say it. I just don't want to go into great detail of what her body looked like,
but I kind of did already. While the helicopter was going around or patrolling the area, that's when they spotted
what seemed to be a man standing on the bridge
next to a small van. Of course he had a van. What else would he be driving? Now, he appeared to be either
masturbating or urinating. They weren't really sure,
but he was doing something that looks suspicious. Fortunately for authorities, Arthur did exactly what
they thought he would do. He came back to the crime scene to relive the pleasure of the attack, and he was indeed masturbating. Now, patrol teams in the area, they were alerted about
this man and the van nearby, and they go driving around,
they were looking for him, and they are able to
actually track down Arthur. So they pull up to Arthur, and they pull up his information based off of the license plate, and they see that the car is registered in his girlfriend's name at the time. And then they ask Arthur,
what are you doing up here? Why are you masturbating? First of all, put your pants on. They ask him what he's doing up there. They're like, hey, can we see some ID? And then that's when Arthur told police that he actually didn't even
have a driver's license, and he's just been driving
around without one. We appreciate his honesty, I guess. They ask him, well, why don't
you have a driver's license? First of all, you don't
have any form of ID. You don't have anything, what the hell? And he tells the police, yeah, I was in jail for manslaughter. Authorities, they were very confident that this was indeed their killer, so they brought him in for questioning, and while in questioning,
that's when Arthur told authorities about
the earlier child death, his Vietnam War experience. A photograph was taken of Arthur, took it around to all
the local sex workers, and that's when they got a confirmation that this was indeed Mitch
that they had mentioned a couple of times, or a
lot of them mentioned. Authorities then learned
about Arthur's sealed records, which prevented them from
tracking him down sooner. Honestly, and I think we
can all agree on this, that there should have been
some kind of repercussions for those people who sealed
the records, correct? They should be in prison, too. Authorities couldn't access his records. I mean, right? They need to go to prison for that. They essentially helped
him get away with it. It's not how the world works. Isn't it fun? Arthur liked to talk, and
he liked to tell stories. In the beginning, he
would just admit stuff, like, yeah, I did it. You know, like he wasn't
afraid to say yes, he did it with the two previous murders, but this time, authorities were not able to get him to admit any of the murders besides the one that he
already was tried for and served time for. He was not talking. He was like, can a guy jack
off in peace on a bridge? Jeez. They bring in Arthur's
girlfriend, and her name's Clara. They bring her in for
questioning, and guess what? And they notice something peculiar. No, they just noticed that she's wearing some jewelry, right? What's so special about that? Authorities asked, hey, where'd
you get that jewelry from? And she's like, oh my
God, Arthur gave it to me, and he just loves me, whatever. Authorities recognized
this piece of jewelry because it belonged to
one of Arthur's victims. Now, it was said that
authorities go to Arthur, and they're like, hey, we
saw your girlfriend, Clara. She has this jewelry that
belonged to this victim, and they show like a picture of the victim who's actually wearing the jewelry. We're going to implicate Clara, your girlfriend, in the killings, which then set Arthur into a panic. Police got Arthur exactly
where they wanted him, because he ended up
confessing to all the murders, and then he ends up
going into great detail about what he did with each of them, details about why, just excuses as to why he was forced to kill some of them. Arthur even confessed
to two other killings that had been undiscovered at that time, and he actually takes investigators and shows them where these bodies were. Our first formal confession
was nearly 80 pages long. Arthur said he killed a
woman because she bit him, so he was like, yeah.
and then I killed her because self-defense. And then he said that
he killed another woman because she was trying
to steal his wallet. And then he said he killed another woman because she made too
much noise during sex. I don't think that's self-defense, sir. Arthur then went on to admit
that he did indeed sometimes, but not all the times, but he would return to his victim's body weeks after the murder to
eat pieces of their skin, and then he bragged about eating parts of the, you know, the lower region. In November of 1990, Arthur went on trial for the 10 murders that
had occurred in one county, and then there was one
murder that had happened outside of the county, so it had to be tried separately, but there was a total of 11 victims, not including the two in the beginning. Now, Arthur's defense
team tried to build a case based on an insanity plea, citing various factors
such as his upbringing, post-traumatic stress, they said that he had a cyst on his brain, and that he also had
a rare genetic defect, and that's why he was killing everybody. Mm hmm. Jurors were shown videotapes of Arthur being interviewed by a
defense psychiatrist. Arthur claimed that he was possessed by the reincarnated
spirit of a 13th century English cannibal named Aries. Now, look, I've Googled this name, and I can't seem to find the story of this English cannibal anywhere unless it's attached to this story itself. So if you have any knowledge about this 13th century English cannibal, let me know down below. Oh my God, what if he made it up? This a 13th century English cannibal is the one who had taught him
how to dine on human flesh. It wasn't him, it was a spirit, obviously. You think that's me, no. Arthur also blamed his
mother for his killing spree, going on to say that his mother's voice had ordered him to kill these victims, so I don't know if he's telling the truth, like these are real things
that he was thinking, or if he was just trying
to kind of feed into that see, I'm insane. Arthur though, he would
be declared as sane, and he was found guilty of 10 instances of second degree murder, and the judge sentenced him
to 25 years for each count, which was a total of 250 years in prison. In November of 2008, Arthur complained of having a pain in his leg. He was transferred to a hospital, and that's later where he
died of cardiac arrest. So that was a story of Arthur Shawcross. I mean, what else can you say? I mean, I'm glad he's dead, sorry. You know, the Lord says
you should always forgive, but boy, do they make it
difficult? (chuckling) Anyways, let me know
your thoughts down below. Also, I would love to
hear who you would like me to talk about next week. I hope you have a really good day today, you make good choices. Please, please, please,
(hands clapping) please, please, please
be safe out there, okay, and I'll be seeing you guys later. Bye!
