A brief followup to my video/article on the rationality of conspiracy theories. It is a common belief among intellectuals that “conspiracy theories” are inherently irrational or so unlikely as to be essentially inherently irrational. About 5-10 percent of “serial killer” cases involve murders committed by two or more people, a conspiracy. This is a quick and partial check on the official 14.7 percent of all murders in 2019 committed by multiple offenders, a conspiracy, according to the US FBI. Official numbers, including FBI and DOJ numbers, have been found to be misleading in a number of cases — hence independent checks are warranted.
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John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Another brief followup to my article on the rationality of conspiracy theories. It is a common belief among intellectuals that “conspiracy theories” are inherently irrational or so unlikely as to be essentially inherently irrational.
The dictionary — as opposed to popular pejorative propaganda meaning — of “conspiracy theory” is simply a theory or hypothesis that some illegal or harmful event was caused by two or more malefactors working together. When surviving family, friends and neighbors, police investigators, news reporters or others suspect two or more perpetrators in a murder, they must consider a conspiracy theory.
The popular propaganda redefinition of “conspiracy theory,” the most straightforward dictionary phrase for a conspiracy theory, as “an irrational theory contradicted by evidence and reason” makes it difficult even to discuss and consider actual conspiracies in the modern world — not unlike the fictional newspeak in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984.
A high fraction of events where the phrase “conspiracy theory” is used to stigmatize suspicions of a criminal conspiracy are murders such as the assassination of President Kennedy or possible murders such as the suspicious “suicide” of financier Jeffrey Epstein where the suspected criminal conspiracy involves powerful persons such as high government officials, politicians, business leaders, or others. According to official FBI statistics about 14.7 percent of murders in 2019 were committed by multiple offenders, a conspiracy in common usage.
Almost twenty-seven percent (27%) of murders in 2019 were unsolved. Unsolved murders tend to be gang violence/organized crime murders, that is conspiracies that could not be proven. The larger, the more powerful, and the more secret a gang or organized crime group is perceived to be, the less willing witnesses are to come forward with testimony and evidence.
As a partial check on the FBI’s official numbers on murders with multiple offenders, I took a look at the frequency of conspiracies in high profile “serial killer” murder cases. Using the list of “serial killer” cases in The Big Book of Serial Killers, Volume 1, by Jack Rosewood indicates at least 5-10 percent of “serial killer” cases involve conspiracies — based on actual convictions of accomplices, forensic evidence of accomplices, accomplices not charged in the actual murders due to a plea deal, and similar strong evidence of a conspiracy. Unsubstantiated claims by the convicted “serial killers” of accomplices or a conspiracy are not counted.
The Big Book of Serial Killers, Volume 1, by Jack Rosewood, Table of Contents (TOC), Kindle edition, lists one-hundred and fifty (150) so-called serial killer cases. The cases are listed by the main perpetrator or perpetrators. Of these, six (6) are pairs of perpetrators. However, several more cases involved additional accomplices not listed in the table of contents. These serial killer conspiracy cases are listed in detail below. At least ten (10) cases involved two or more perpetrators actually charged or convicted by name, with thirteen (13) highly probable cases with strong evidence of one or more accomplice, and two possible cases of an accomplice or accomplices (John Wayne Gacy and Patrick Kearney).
Note that I am relying on the actual court cases and police investigations where accomplices were identified or strong forensic evidence of accomplices presented and not theories or weak evidence such as those found in sources like the book Programmed to Kill by the late Dave McGowan (not a relative) or Maury Terry’s The Ultimate Evil. In a few cases such as the Dean Corll and the Delfina and Maria de Jesus Gonzalez cases below there is credible evidence of larger organized prostitution or pornography involved in the case.
NOTE: TOC is an abbreviation for the Table of Contents, oo is used for clear cases with identified accomplices usually convicted of involvement, o for cases with strong evidence of an accomplice or an uncharged accomplice (e.g. Tyria Moore in the Aileen Wuornos case). Where the accomplices are not listed in the Table of Contents, they are listed in parentheses immediately after the case name used in the Table of Contents.
oo Paul Bernardo (and Karla Homolka) page 1 TOC, page 21 oo Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono (Hillside Strangler case) page 1 TOC, page 26 oo Lawrence Sigmund Bittaker and Roy Lewis Norris page 1 TOC, page 39
oo William Bonin, page 1 TOC, page 50 (with 22-year-old Vernon Butts, as well as teenagers Gregory Miley, William Pugh, and James Munro. One of three “Freeway Killers” active in 1970’s California)
oo Doug Clark (Douglas Clark and Carol Bundy, “Sunset Strip Killers”) page 1 TOC, page 87 oo Dean Corll (with Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks, “Candy Man,” “Pied Piper,” or Houston Heights case) , page 1 TOC, page 97 oo Delfina and Maria de Jesus Gonzalez page 2, TOC, page 180 (four sisters, large scale prostitution ring in Mexico, allegedly 91 murders) o Patrick Kearney (with David Douglas Hill?) page 2, TOC, page 195 (Kearney’s gay lover Hill was originally charged. Kearney gave a confession exonerating Hill. A grand jury declined to charge Hill, nonetheless there is evidence Hill was involved in the John La May murder, probably other murders as well) o Randy Steven Kraft (strong DNA and other evidence of one or more accomplices, also a “Freeway Killer”), page 3, TOC, page 214
oo Leonard Lake and Charles Ng, page 3, TOC, 223 oo John Allan Mohammad and Lee Boyd Malvo (“Washington DC Sniper” case in 2002) page 3, TOC, page 256 o David Parker Ray (with Cindy Hendy, Glenda Jean “Jesse” Ray (Ray’s daughter) and Dennis Yancy, “Toy Box Killer” case) bodies not found, page 4 TOC, page 307 oo Fred West and Rosemary West, Page 5 TOC, page 391
o Aileen Carol Wuornos (and Tyria Moore, never charged) page 5 TOC, page 404
UNPROVEN EVIDENCE OF CONSPIRACY
John Wayne Gacy, (with possible unknown accomplice or accomplices, Jeff Rignall, who survived an abduction and attack by Gacy reported another unidentified person involved, other evidence) page 2 TOC, page 149
THE BOTTOM LINE
Totals:
10/150 (6.67 pct) cases (conservative, actual convicted accomplices) 13/150 (8.67 pct) cases (includes Wuornos, Kraft, David Ray Parker, highly probable) 15/150 (10 pct) cases (includes Kearney, Gacy, maybe)
I was unable to substantiate some Internet claims that Donald Henry Gaskins — another serial killer listed in the Rosewood book — had accomplices. Gaskins name turned up in some lists of “serial killers” with accomplices or suspected accomplices.
It was not practical to check every name in the table of contents due to limited time. Conspiracy serial killer cases were identified from memory and verified or found with Internet searches for serial killer cases involving accomplices — comparing the search results to the list in the table of contents. Thus, a few additional “serial killer” conspiracy cases in the table of contents may have been missed in this analysis.
Conclusion
Thus, proven in a court of law or extremely likely conspiracy cases are a small but significant fraction, about 5-10 percent, of prominent serial killer cases — smaller than the 14.7 percent of murders with multiple offenders according to the FBI (in 2019). This is not surprising given the generally solitary nature of the crimes. Nonetheless, conspiracies are not exceptionally rare or unusual even in this type of murder.
Note that the details of these crimes are quite unpleasant and are discussed in these references. The analysis in this article is only concerned with the proportion of cases that were conspiracies as defined in common usage — multiple offenders working together.
Programmed to Kill: The Politics of Serial Murder, Dave McGowan, August 2004 https://www.amazon.com/Programmed-Kill-Politics-Serial-Murder/dp/0595326404/
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
A brief followup to my article on the rationality of conspiracy theories.
A high fraction of events where the phrase “conspiracy theory” is used to stigmatize suspicions of a criminal conspiracy are murders such as the assassination of President Kennedy or possible murders such as the suspicious “suicide” of Jeffrey Epstein. According to official FBI statistics about 14.7 percent of murders in 2019 were committed by multiple offenders, the common usage meaning of conspiracy. About twenty-seven (27) percent of murders in 2019, almost one third, were unsolved. Unsolved murders tend to be gang violence/organized crime murders, that is conspiracies that could not be proven.
FBI Murders by Offender Type in 2019
Some Murder Conspiracy Charges and Convictions from a DuckDuckGo search on August 29, 2021
10 charged with murder, conspiracy in fatal shooting of 12-year-old Todriana Peters
BY RAMON ANTONIO VARGAS | Staff writer Published Aug 26, 2021 at 4:01 pm | Updated Aug 26, 2021 at 4:55 pm
Less than three months after a hail of bullets outside a graduation party cut down a 12-year-old girl and wounded two others, Orleans Parish prosecutors have filed felony charges against 10 men suspected of having a hand in the deadly Memorial Day weekend ambush.
Bronx Man Convicted Of Murder, Robbery, And Drug Trafficking Offenses
Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that a jury returned a guilty verdict Friday against KASHEEN SAMUELS, a/k/a “Kash,” a/k/a “JR,” on five counts, including charges relating to the felony murder of Andrew Torres during an armed robbery, as well as other charges relating to robbery, robbery conspiracy, and narcotics conspiracy. U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos presided over the 9-day trial.
Man Convicted in Murder Linked to Mexican Mafia That San Diego Sheriff Helped Probe
by City News Service July 2, 2021
A jury has convicted a 24-year-old man for his role in the killing of a drug dealer in Placentia, an attack allegedly ordered by the head of a branch of the Mexican Mafia.
The 2017 fatal shooting, which San Diego County Sheriff’s investigators helped probe, resulted in the death of Robert Rios, 35.
Augustine Velazquez was convicted of murder, conspiracy, burglary and attempted robbery Wednesday in the killing.
Two New Jersey mobsters trying to overturn 1989 conviction for John Gotti murder plot By DiMaiolo Santolo May 17, 2021
Two New Jersey mobsters trying to overturn 1989 conviction for John Gotti murder plot
Two aging New Jersey mobsters, who federal judges have denied to release from prison during the coronavirus pandemic, are now alleging their decades-old convictions for plotting to murder John Gotti and ordering the hit on a New York businessman should be overturned.
Attorneys for Louis “Bobby” Manna and Richard DeSciscio, who have both been incarcerated since 1989, said they filed motions in federal court this week outlining how cases that put the two members of the Genovese Crime Family behind bars was full of prosecutorial misconduct.
Long-Time Leader of Violent Grape Street Crips Street Gang and Two Members Convicted of Racketeering Conspiracy Leader’s Orders Resulted in Four Murders and an Attempted Murder
NEWARK, N.J. – Three members of the New Jersey set of the violent street gang “Grape Street Crips” – including its long-time leader – were convicted by a federal jury today of racketeering conspiracy and a host of murders, shootings, and drug trafficking crimes, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito, FBI Special Agent in Charge Gregory W. Ehrie and DEA Special Agent in Charge Valerie A. Nickerson announced.
The leader of the enterprise, Corey Hamlet, a/k/a “C-Blaze,” a/k/a “Blaze,” a/k/a “Blizzie,” a/k/a “Castor Troy,” 41, of Belleville, New Jersey; and associates Tony Phillips, a/k/a “Blue,” 27, of Newark; and Ahmad Manley, a/k/a “Fresh,” a/k/a “Moddi G,” 32, of Summit, New Jersey, were convicted following a two-month trial before U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo in Newark federal court. The jury deliberated for four days before returning the verdicts. (A chart outlining the counts per defendant and maximum potential penalties is attached below.)
Yonkers Gang Leader Convicted in Federal Court of Racketeering Charges, Murder, Conspiracy to Murder, Attempted Murder, Narcotics, and Firearms Offenses U.S. Attorney’s Office July 01, 2013
Southern District of New York (212) 637-2600
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Steven Knowles, 25, was convicted today in White Plains of various racketeering charges, murder, conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, narcotics conspiracy, and firearms offenses following a four-week jury trial before the U.S. District Judge Kenneth M Karas. The jury convicted Knowles of charges arising out of his involvement, from 2000 through 2013, in the criminal activities of the Elm Street Wolves gang (the Wolves)—a violent street gang that was involved in drug trafficking and multiple acts of violence, including murder and attempted murder, in Yonkers, New York.
Court affirms conviction of Pagan biker who helped plot radio host’s murder Updated: Apr. 27, 2021, 12:39 a.m. | Published: Apr. 26, 2021, 10:05 p.m.
The New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division affirmed the the 2018 conviction of a Pagan biker who plotted the murder of popular radio host April Kauffman in order to protect a pill-dealing scheme he had set up with her husband, authorities said.
Three judges handed down the ruling on April 20 that the trial of Ferdinand ‘Freddy’ Augello, 65, of Petersburg, was fair and impartial, the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office announced Monday.
Augello was found guilty on Oct. 2, 2018 of murder, murder conspiracy, racketeering and drug charges after only a few hours of jury deliberations.
Fourteen Alleged Members of “Babiiez” Gang Charged in 81-Count Conspiracy Indictment That Includes 11 Shootings Flatbush-based Gang is Alleged Subset of Insane Crip Gangsta Nine Handguns Were Recovered During the Course of the Investigation
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, together with New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, today announced that 14 alleged members of the Babiiez street gang are variously charged in an 81-count indictment with conspiracy to commit murder, possess weapons and related charges. The indictment includes charges related to 11 shootings that resulted in eight victims – six of whom were alleged rival gang members and two men who were not rivals.
These are a few examples of arguably solved murders committed by conspiracies.
(C) 2021 by John F. McGowan, Ph.D.
About Me
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
The belief common among intellectuals that “conspiracy theories” are inherently irrational or so unlikely as to be essentially inherently irrational is demonstrably false.
Subscribe to our free Weekly Newsletter for articles and videos on practical mathematics, Internet Censorship, ways to fight back against censorship, and other topics by sending an email to: subscribe [at] mathematical-software.com
John F. McGowan, Ph.D. solves problems using mathematics and mathematical software, including developing gesture recognition for touch devices, video compression and speech recognition technologies. He has extensive experience developing software in C, C++, MATLAB, Python, Visual Basic and many other programming languages. He has been a Visiting Scholar at HP Labs developing computer vision algorithms and software for mobile devices. He has worked as a contractor at NASA Ames Research Center involved in the research and development of image and video processing algorithms and technology. He has published articles on the origin and evolution of life, the exploration of Mars (anticipating the discovery of methane on Mars), and cheap access to space. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
