Harvey Murray Glatman
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Harvey Murray Glatman was an American serial killer active during the late 1950s. He was one of the first "signature killers"β serial murderers whose crimes all involve at least one identical feature that has roots in their homicidal compulsionsβto have been studied by criminal psychologists. In Glatman's case, that compulsion was to bind and torture his victims with a rope and take pictures of the murders.
[edit] Early life
Born in 1927 in the Bronx and raised in Colorado, Glatman exhibited antisocial behavior and sadomasochistic sexual tendencies from an early age. He was an amateur burglar and sex offender as a teenager, breaking into women's apartments so he could tie them up, molest them and take pictures as souvenirs. He was caught in one such act in 1945 and charged with attempted burglary. Less than a month later, while still out on bail awaiting trial, he kidnapped another woman and molested her before letting her go. She went to the police, and Glatman went to prison for eight months.
Once out of prison, Glatman moved to Albany, New York, where he was eventually arrested in 1947 for a series of muggings, committed mostly for the thrill of having women under his power. He was given a 5β10 year prison sentence in Sing Sing Correctional Facility, where prison psychiatrists diagnosed him as a psychopath. He was nevertheless a model prisoner and was granted an early release in 1956.
[edit] Murders
Glatman moved to Los Angeles in 1957 and started trolling around modeling agencies looking for women to satisfy his violent sexual urges. He would contact them with offers of work for pulp fiction magazines, take them back to his apartment, tie them up and violently rape them, taking pictures all the while, before finally strangling them and burying them in a nearby desert plot.
He was arrested in 1958, caught in the act of kidnapping what would have been his fourth victim, and confessed to the other three murders. He was found guilty of first degree murder and executed in the gas chamber of San Quentin State Prison on September 18, 1959.
