What would you do if you found out a family member was a serial killer? Would you hide them, cover for them? Would you turn them in? Thankfully, the asshat (I find it difficult to call him a man) I'm about to talk about had family that did the right thing.
Who is Angel Maturino Resendiz? Ever heard of the Railroad Killer? Luckily for many people, he had a sister who, in my opinion, did the right thing. Unfortunately, he managed to murder a lot of people before getting caught.
Angel Resendiz
So...what's his story? Ángel Leoncio Reyes Recendis was born in Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla, Mexico, in 1959 according to some sources, other sources state his birth certificate lists 1960. Not much is know about his childhood other than his mother stated he was raised by another family that she claims didn't do a good job. No info found on why his mother did not raise him. I guess that doesn't really matter as Angel turned out to be a bad guy no matter what. Nature versus nurture...that's always a tough debate. During the 1990's, he was suspected in at least 23 murders across the United States and Mexico. He was given the name "Railroad Killer" as most of his crimes were committed near the railroads where he jumped off of trains that he used to travel around on.
Angel illegally traveled by jumping on and off trains through Mexico, Canada, and the United States. This allowed him to evade being identified and captured for quite some time. He used many aliases, but was chiefly known and sought after as Rafael Resendez-Ramirez.
Angel killed people by different means - rocks, a pickaxe, and other blunt objects; a lot of his victims being killed in their own home. Seriously, lock your doors and windows, get a security system, put electric wire over everything outside...whatever it takes to keep people out!
After a home murder, evidence showed that he would linger in the homes for a while, mainly to eat. I mean...a man's gotta eat, right? Good Lord!!! I can't wrap my mind around the arrogance of these people. He also took personal items, such as jewlery, and would lay out the victims' driver's licenses to learn about their lives. Sweet Jesus, dude! You just killed someone...you now want to know something about them? What the actual f*ck?!? Later on, his wife...yes, this guy had a wife (common-law, but whatevs)...turned over lots of jewelry after Angel had been identified as the Railroad Killer and surrendered, that she believed had belonged to the victims. It's also believed that his mother received some jewelry of his victims as well. Wow! He actually gave "gifts" to his wife and mother! I can't even... A lot of the jewelry was sold or melted down. Money was also left at some of the crime scenes. I have no idea what his intention was for doing that. Some of the female victims were raped, but professionals believe that the rape was a secondary intent. I have no idea what that means, either. I still have yet to go for a psychology degree...which will probably never happen. Most of his victims were found hidden from view and covered with a blanket.
From Crimelibrary.com is a list of the nine serial murders attributed to Resendiz:
Victim 1: August 29, 1997/Lexington. Ky.: Christopher Maier, 21, a University of Kentucky student, and his girlfriend are attacked while walking along the tracks near the college. Maier is bludgeoned to death and she is raped and beaten, almost to the point of death. She miraculously survives.
Christopher Maier
Victim 2: October 4, 1998/Hughes Spring, Texas: On this cool Fall evening, 87-year-old Leafie Mason is hammered to death by a tire iron by someone who enters her home through a window. Her front door faces the Kansas City-Southern Rail Line tracks only 50 yards away.
Leafie Mason
Victim 3: December 17, 1998/Houston, Texas: An invader breaks into the home of Dr. Claudia Benton, 39, of the Baylor College of Medicine, when she arrives home, the intruder rapes, stabs and bludgeons her repeatedly with a blunt instrument. Her home is near the rail lines that run through suburban West University Place. When the police recover her stolen Jeep Cherokee in San Antonio. TX, they find fingerprints on the steering column that match those of drifter Resendiz, a known illegal alien. Three weeks later, a county judge signs a warrant for Resendiz' arrest for burglary — but, strangely enough, not for murder. There is not enough evidence, says he!
Dr. Claudia Benton
Victims 4 & 5: May 2, 1999 Weimar, Texas: Late at night, the Reverend Norman J. "Skip" Sirnic, 46, and wife Karen, 47, are struck to death by a sledgehammer in the parsonage of the United Church of Christ — located adjacent to the town's railroad. The couple's red Mazda is found in San Antonio three weeks later. Forensic evidence matches the killing of Dr. Benton in Houston.
Rev Norman Sirnic and Wife Karen
Victim 6: June 4, 1999: Houston, Texas: Schoolteacher Noemi Dominguez, 26, is clubbed to death in her apartment, located near rail tracks. Seven days later, troopers find Dominguez' 1993 white Honda Civic abandoned at the international bridge at Del Rio, Texas.
Noemi Dominguez
Victim 7: June 4, 1999/Fayette County, Texas: Seventy-three-year-old Josephine Konvicka is killed in bed by a blow of a pointed garden tool to the head. She lived in a frame farmhouse not far from Weimar, where a month prior Rev. and Mrs. Simic were killed, and within shadows of a rail yard. Her car has been tampered with, but the killer is unable to find the keys.
Josephine Konvicka
Victims 8 & 9: June 15, 1999/Gorham, Ill.: An intruder breaks into a mobile home to kill its two occupants. After shooting George Morber, Sr.,80, in the head with a shotgun, he then clubs to death Morber's daughter, Carolyn Frederick, 52. Their house sits only 100 yards from the a railroad track. The next day, a passerby spots Fredericks' red pickup truck in Cairo, IL, sixty miles south of Gorham, being driven by a man matching Resendiz' description.
George Morber, Sr.
Carolyn Frederick
According to Wikipedia, a few more names are added to the list:
Unknown Woman in 1986 - Shot four times with a .38-caliber weapon, with her body dumped in an abandoned farmhouse. Reséndiz stated that he met the woman at a homeless shelter. They took a motorcycle trip together, bringing a gun along to fire for target practice. Reséndiz said that he shot and killed the woman for disrespecting him.
Unknown Man in 1986 - Supposedly the boyfriend of the previous victim. Reséndiz said he shot and killed him and dumped his body in a creek somewhere between San Antonio and Uvalde. Reséndiz said that he killed the man because the man was involved in black magic. This man's body has never been found, and nothing is known about him except what Reséndiz told authorities. Reséndiz confessed to these first two murders in September 2001, in hopes that doing so would speed up his execution.
Michael White, age 22, 7/19/1991 - Bludgeoned to death with a brick. His body was found in the front yard of an abandoned downtown house. Reséndiz also confessed to this murder in September 2001. During this confession, he drew a map of the crime scene and claimed that he killed White because he was homosexual.
Jesse Howell, age 19, 3/23/1997 - Bludgeoned to death with an air hose coupling and left beside the railroad tracks. Von Huben's fiancee.
Wendy Von Huben, age 16, 3/23/1997 - Raped, strangled, suffocated both manually and with duct tape, and buried in a shallow grave in Sumter County, Florida. Howell's fiancee.
Roberto Castro, age 54, 7/5/1997 - A drifter beaten to death with a piece of plywood in a rail yard. Though not officially charged, Reséndiz is considered the prime suspect in this case.
Fannie Whitney Byers, age 81, 12/10,1998 - Bludgeoned to death with a tire rim in her home, which was located near CSX Transportation railroad tracks. A Lexington couple was charged with Byers' murder, but according to authorities, Reséndiz admitted to an FBI agent that he killed her.
In June 1999, Resendiz was put on the FBI Top Ten Most Wanted List. Wanted posters described Resendiz as 5'7" tall, weighing 140-150 pounds; black hair, brown eyes and dark complexion; scars on right ring finger, left arm and forehead; a snake tattoo on his left forearm and a flower tattoo on his left wrist; has been known to employ any one of dozens of aliases, social security numbers and birth dates (although the certified date seemed to be August 1, 1960); has worked as a day laborer, migrant worker or auto mechanic. Amazing that this man was only 4 inches taller than me. I guess the saying in true...size doesn't matter! He must've been able to exude such terror and bring out the fear in people that he was able to overcome them.
During this time, Jackson County, IL, officially charged Resendiz with the murder of the Gorham killings (George Morber, Sr., and his daughter, Carolyn Frederick) after his fingerprints are documented. Officials in Louisville, KY, did likewise. Angry authorities in Louisville, KY, gave out wallet-sized photos of Angel Resendiz, urging people to notify police immediately if they thought they spotted him.
On July 1, authorities in Fayette County, TX, identified DNA from Noemi Dominguez in Josephine Konvicka's home, indicating that after Resendiz killed Noemi, he drove her car Josephine's and killed her.
Don K. Clark, special agent in charge of the FBI's Houston office, coordinating the nationwide manhunt, called Resendiz "a very dangerous and violent person," explaining why the Mexican national and border jumper was placed on the infamous Top Ten list. "He's demonstrated he can use almost any kind of object to take a human life in a very violent manner and we've got to try to catch him." Two hundred agents, he said, were assigned round-the-clock assignments in locations where Resendiz was known to have struck and where he might strike next. Of course, areas of concentration included freight yards and rail depots. "We have the train tracks," Clark summarized. I don't see that trying to cover all train track areas, freight yards, etc. was an easy task.
On July 7, the FBI brought Angel's common-law wife, Julietta Reyes, to Houston, TX, from Rodeo, Mexico. She wanted Angel to turn himself in. As stated before, Angel did sent some of his victims' jewelry to his wife. She turned in a total of 93 pieces, some of which were identified by relatives of Noemi Dominguez (13 pieces) and George Benton, husband of Dr. Claudia Benton, claimed several pieces of her property. Again, the arrogance and audacity of killers like Angel. What are you thinking when you are sending your loved one something that belonged to a victim? How f*cking sick!!!
Now retired special agent and unit chief of the FBI, John Douglas, once mentioned "the manhunt for the accused killer (had) been hampered by the lack of a coordinated computer system that would allow law enforcement officials to compare notes instantly and determine patterns."
On June 2, the Border Patrol apprehended Angel Resendiz near El Paso as he was attempting to cross the border illegally. While he was in its custody, the United States Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) performed a computer search on him, checking his fingerprints and photo against a possible fugitives list. Because the system failed to identify him as a wanted man, the INS deported him to Mexico. Holy s*hit, Angel was a lucky man!!!
This mistake was definitely an embarrassment, but it was also a serious mistake. After his release, Resendiz immediately found his way back into the States where, within 48 hours, he killed both Dominguez and Konvicka near Houston, then Morber and his daughter in Illinois. Four innocent people murdered over a computer glitch.
Now that the manhunt was on for Resendiz, in early June, a Texas Ranger by the name of Drew Carter thought that Resendiz's sister, Manuela, could possibly be of great help. This is the part of the story that I love...thank the heavens for family doing the right thing!!! Manuela was in fear of her brother either being killed by the FBI or killing again and agreed to do what she could to help out. I think this woman is amazing! No hiding her brother, no covering for him...she decided to do the right thing. Was it an easy decision to make? Probably not, but I love how she decided to do what's right.
So, everything was put into motion. Manuela was faxed information from the Houston County District Attorney's office about what they were going to offer the patient (not putting the death penalty on the table was not in the papers, according to my research). The evening of July 12, Drew Carter received word that Angel would surrender, everything was scheduled for the next day, July 13, at 9:00 a.m.
Four murder charges were filed against Resendiz and he also faced other possible charges in Kentucky and Illinois. Florida was awaiting blood sample comparison studies to come back on a Marion County murder in 1997 - a body found beside railroad tracks.
Mexico was also looking into unsolved cases they had in Ciudad Juarez, as many things matched Resendiz's modus operandi.
Even though Resendiz has been formally charged with the murders of seven people in total, he was only tried and convicted of the killing of Dr. Claudia Benton. She was killed in her home in 1998. Several items stolen from Benton's home — including fragments of a steering column from Benton's Jeep — were later recovered by police in the house of Resendiz's girlfriend. As well, Resendiz's fingerprints were found in that same automobile.
Resendiz initially refused to be tested by a court-appointed psychiatrist (he eventually underwent testing) and did not accept the change of venue his lawyers wanted. The defense team tried to go with getting Resendiz committed for insanity.
A defense side psychiatrist claimed to have diagnosed Resendiz as schizophrenic. This man claimed that Resendiz had the delusion that the victims were "evil" and did not know what he had done was wrong.
On the prosecution's side, a psychiatrist stated that he believed the defendant "knew what he was doing". Did he have a hatred for women and possibly mankind in general? Yes. Does that make him insane? According to the prosecution's psychiatrist...no.
The prosecution had over twenty witnesses. The most impacting witness was the last one, 23-year-old girlfriend of victim Christopher Maier, Holly Dunn Pendleton. Yes!!! Holly Dunn Pendleton is a survivor! Holly and Christopher Maier were attacked while strolling home from a function at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Resendiz crushed Maier's skull with a 52-pound rock, then raped Dunn Pendleton and beat her head with a heavy cudgel. Let me say again...Holly is a tough as survivor!!! She was the prosecution's star witness in the sentencing phase of his trial in Texas in 2000. Raped, bludgeoned and left for dead, she recovered to identify Resendiz as the Railroad Killer. Yes, girl!!! In court, she detailed the bloody assault, which took place on August 27, 1997, near local railway tracks. According to Holly, after Resendiz killed Christopher, but before beating her, Resendiz told her, "You don't have to worry about him anymore." OMG! What a douchebag!!!
In their closing arguments, the prosecution pointed out the heinous nature of Resendiz's crimes, the premeditative nature of each crime, the heartlessness displayed and, especially, to the inescapable evidence of his guilt: fingerprints, palm prints and, most damaging, DNA evidence collected from the scenes of the crime.
The defense didn't have much to go on except begging for mercy of the jurors to spare Resendiz from the death penalty. Attorney Rudy Duarte stated to the jury, "(Our client) recognized he had a problem, and he turned himself in. That is something." Well. that was a nice try.
The jurors ended up feeling no sympathy for Resendiz and on May 17, 1999, after 10 hours of deliberation (seriously? 10 hours?), the jury announced a guilty verdict for first-degree, premeditated murder. The Railroad Killer was also sentenced to death.
On June 21, 2006, a Houston judge ruled that Reséndiz was mentally competent to be executed. Upon hearing the judge's ruling, Reséndiz said, "I don't believe in death. I know the body is going to go to waste. But me, as a person, I'm eternal. I'm going to be alive forever." Blah, blah, blah...
He also described himself as half-man and half-angel and told psychiatrists he couldn't be executed because he didn't believe he could die. These comments have led some specialists to believe that Reséndiz was not competent to be executed. In the words of a bilingual psychiatrist who evaluated Reséndiz on two occasions in 2006, “delusions had completely taken over [Reséndiz’s] thought processes.”
The death sentence was still signed and his execution was completed in Huntsville, Texas, on June 27, 2006, by lethal injection. Resendiz was pronounced dead at 8:05 p.m. CST. His execution was the thirteenth of the year in Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state.
For those who want to know, this was found on Murderpedia:
Final Meal: Declined.
Final Words: "I want to ask if it is in your heart to forgive me. You don't have to. I know I allowed the devil to rule my life. I just ask you to forgive me and ask the Lord to forgive me for allowing the devil to deceive me. I thank God for having patience with me. I don't deserve to cause you pain. You did not deserve this. I deserve what I am getting." Before drawing his final breath, the killer, who claimed to be Jewish, prayed in Hebrew and Spanish.
-- ClarkProsecutor.org
--Audre
Sources:
Wikipedia
Murderpedia
Crimelibrary.com