Jan. 6, 2026
Birmingham's Forgotten Serial Killer: Jack Harrison Trawick
Birmingham's Forgotten Serial Killer: Jack Harrison Trawick Jack Harrison Trawick murdered Stephanie Gach in Birmingham, Alabama in 1992 after abducting the 21-year-old college student from her apartment complex parking lot. The homicide...
Birmingham's Forgotten Serial Killer: Jack Harrison Trawick
Jack Harrison Trawick murdered Stephanie Gach in Birmingham, Alabama in 1992 after abducting the 21-year-old college student from her apartment complex parking lot. The homicide investigation revealed Trawick had killed at least three women, including 17-year-old Betty Jo Richards in 1972 and 26-year-old Aileen Pruitt earlier in 1992. Forensic evidence from his white Toyota van, including fiber analysis and luminol-detected blood traces, led to his conviction and death sentence. Trawick had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic with homicidal impulses in 1970, yet remained free to kill for decades.
This is the story of a killer who described murder as a physical addiction, a man who walked Birmingham's streets for twenty years between his first kill and his capture. Trawick didn't fade into obscurity after his arrest. From death row, he launched a psychological warfare campaign against his victims' families through a murderabilia website, forcing grieving mothers to relive their nightmares. The case exposed massive failures in the mental health system and sparked a legislative battle that changed how we think about criminals profiting from their crimes.
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1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,600
In 1970, a psychiatrist in Birmingham, Alabama, wrote down five words that should have changed everything.
2
00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:12,800
Paranoids gets a frenic with homicidal impulses.
3
00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:17,600
The patient was a 23-year-old man named Jack Harrison Treywick.
4
00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:25,600
Those five words were a prediction, and for the next 22 years, nobody did anything to stop what was coming.
5
00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:48,600
[Music]
6
00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:58,400
There's this moment in 1970 where someone actually writes it down. A psychiatrist sits across from Jack Harrison Treywick and puts it in his file.
7
00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:04,600
Paranoids gets a frenic with homicidal impulses. And they let him go.
8
00:01:04,600 --> 00:01:12,200
Two years later, Jack Treywick is driving through downtown Birmingham when he sees 17-year-old Betty Joe Richards.
9
00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:21,800
He later said that he decided he wanted to "do something" to her. That's how he phrases it. "Do something" like "she's a project."
10
00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:26,600
He forces her into his car with a knife. He drives her to Quentin, Alabama.
11
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Witnesses report a white man chasing a screaming lady into an alley.
12
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This is happening in public. This is frenzy playing out where people can watch.
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He stabs Betty Joe Richards more than 10 times in that alley. Then he walks away. It goes back to his life in Birmingham.
14
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The case goes cold, and Jack Treywick, the man diagnosed with homicidal impulses, remains free for 20 more years.
15
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According to Treywick's later confessions, he travels. In 1978, he claims he strangled a woman in Alaska through her body off a ferry between Prince Rupert and Ketchikan.
16
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That method of disposal almost guarantees you'll never find the body.
17
00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:15,400
That same year, he says he strangled a female hitchhiker while visiting his sister in Oregon.
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Hitchhikers in the late 70s were almost invisible to law enforcement. Transient. Almost nobody reported them missing for weeks.
19
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These confessions were never corroborated with physical evidence, but they fit the profile of someone who understands that if you kill in different jurisdictions,
20
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if you keep moving, the dots never get connected. By 1980, something shifts in Treywick's approach. He gets arrested for phone harassment,
21
00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:49,400
calling women and telling them their husbands have been killed or seriously injured. He's getting off on their immediate terror,
22
00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:58,400
that moment where their world collapses. This is a different kind of violence. No blood, there's no body, no forensic evidence.
23
00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:07,400
Psychological torture delivered through a phone line. He also starts impersonating police officers, yet sentenced to two years for it.
24
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He learns that authority makes people comply, a badge, a uniform, that can get you what you want.
25
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By 1992, whatever was holding Jack Treywick together disintegrates. He later describes his need to kill as an addiction.
26
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He writes, quote, "The body rush from murder does become addictive. It altered brain chemistry and physical need."
27
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Like some people need heroin, apparently Jack needed to kill. On June 17, 1992, he encounters Eileen Pruitt.
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She's 26, recently separated, dealing with the cocaine addiction, vulnerable in all the ways that make someone an easy target.
29
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He picks her up in Birmingham. She tells him to drive to a dirt road behind Hillcrest Hospital. It starts as a transaction.
30
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Then it becomes a slaughter. He stabs her in the throat to stop her from screaming, but he doesn't stop.
31
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When they eventually find Eileen Pruitt's body two days later, the medical examiner counts 57 stab wounds.
32
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57, the number tells you this is rage that's been building for decades, finally finding an outlet.
33
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There's this detail from his confession. He says he felt a moment of remorse when he found a photo of her young son in her purse.
34
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Not remorse for Eileen. Remorse for the kid. The mother was just an object to him.
35
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Four months later, October 9, 1992, Traywick is at a shopping mall when he spots Stephanie Gatch.
36
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She's 21, a college student going about her normal day. He hunts her. He follows her from the mall to her apartment complex.
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Watches her routine. Waits until she's transitioning from her car to her home.
38
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That parking lot is where he makes his move. He's got a gun. It's a toy. Plastic. Completely fake.
39
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But Stephanie doesn't know that. He forces her into his white Toyota van. The fake gun is brilliant in a terrible way.
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It gives him control without the noise of a real weapon, authority, and the appearance of danger get compliance.
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He drives her to an isolated area near Grants Mill Road. He beats her with the ball-pean hammer.
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He strangles her. He stabs her through the heart with an 11-inch knife. He throws her body off an embankment.
43
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Then he goes home, cleans the blood out of his van, scrubbing carpet, wiping down surfaces.
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This is a man who knows cleaning up a crime scene matters. That's how you keep from getting caught.
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This detail becomes crucial later when his lawyers try to argue insanity. How do you claim you can't understand right from wrong when you're destroying the evidence?
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Within weeks of killing Stephanie, there are reports of attempted abductions around Birmingham.
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Multiple women describe a white Toyota van. On October 26, 1992, police bring Traywick in for questioning.
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In the second interview, detectives ask him directly about the Stephanie Gashmurder.
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By the third interview, on October 29, he cracks.
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In the fourth interview, that same day, he confesses to everything.
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The real evidence comes from the van. Forensic scientists find fibers on Stephanie's sweater that match the carpet in Traywick's van.
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The same with the duct tape over her mouth.
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Luminol reveals blood traces on tarp, on the carpet, on that ball-peen hammer, on the 11-inch knife.
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The van is a mobile crime scene. Every surface tells the story.
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When Jack Traywick goes to trial in 1994 for "Capital Murder," his defense is not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
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His lawyers present his entire psychiatric history. The prosecution walks the jury through the crime.
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He stalked Stephanie from a mall. He used a fake gun, drove her to an isolated location.
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He cleaned his van. These are actions of a predator who knows what he's doing and he wants to get away with it.
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During the trial, Traywick's mother testifies about how her son was emotionally restricted, she said.
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When Traywick's father died, despite him being close, Jack never shed a single tear.
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The jury rejects his insanity defense. Jack Traywick is convicted of "Capital Murder" and sentenced to die by lethal injection.
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In 1995, he stands trial for "Island Proof its Murder."
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The jury hears an audio tape of his confession describing those 57 stab wounds.
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His momentary remorse over the photo of her son.
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He's convicted again, sentenced to life without parole.
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Jack Traywick ends up on death row and Holman Correctional Facility.
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And you'd think that's where the story ends, but Traywick finds a way to keep killing.
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But in a different form. He starts corresponding with the pinpal who runs a website dedicated to his crimes.
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Through this person, Traywick begins publishing sadistic pornography.
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Detailed accounts about his murders, he describes the mechanics of strangulation. He writes, "I would do the whole thing again knowing death row was waiting for me."
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He's not expressing remorse anymore, he's reliving the crimes.
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He also creates drawings, graphic sketches of mutilated women, headless corpses, torture scenes.
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In 2007, he tries to sell these drawings online.
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The situation exposes a massive loophole. Prison officials can screen physical mail, but content sent to third parties who publish it online is protected by the First Amendment.
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Traywick has figured out how to weaponize the internet.
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The outrage pushes Stephanie's mom, Mary Kate Gatch, into advocacy.
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She becomes a driving force behind legislation to prevent killers from profiting from their crimes and redirect any money to victims' families.
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For 15 years, his legal team fights the execution. On November 17, 2008, the Supreme Court denies his final appeal.
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On June 11, 2009, Jack Harrison Traywick is prepared for execution.
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His last meal is fried chicken, french fries, onion soup, and a roll.
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In his final words, "The man who spent years taunting mothers, offers an apology."
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He says, "I wish to apologize to the people whom I've hurt, and I ask their forgiveness. I don't deserve it, but I do ask for it."
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Whether that apology is real or one final manipulation, we'll never know.
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He's pronounced dead at 6.17 pm by lethal injection.
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The thing about Jack Traywick's case that stays with me is that 1970 diagnosis, paranoid schizophrenia with homicidal impulses.
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Someone wrote that down. Someone knew. And the system let him walk right back out into Birmingham, Alabama.
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Betty Joe Richards died in 1972.
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Eileen Pruitt died in 1992, stabbed 57 times. Stephanie Gatch died four months later.
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Stephanie's mom didn't just simply grieve. She fought. She turned her rage into legislation.
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She made sure killers like Traywick couldn't profit from the worst things they've ever done.
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The case didn't end with the execution. It ended with the mother who outlasted her daughter's killer, and she changed the law.
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That is the legacy. Not Traywick's twisted writings or his drawings.
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The legacy is the families who survived him and made sure he didn't get the last word.
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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, bingeable true crime stories.
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My name is Joe. Happy to be your host, and here's an email from one of you that listens.
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Subject that Tylenol story detail messed me up.
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Hey Joe, I've heard the Tylenol murders cover a lot, but the way you explained it, how quickly the fear spread really stuck with me.
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The part about the story is pulling the products off the shelves before anyone even knew what was happening was something that I never really thought about before.
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I always knew it was a big case, but I don't think I understood how fast it changed daily life until you laid it out like that.
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That detail made it click in a way that it never had before. Lauren in Naperville, Illinois.
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And Lauren, thank you for the email, and I can tell you when I was researching that case, I knew that it was a big case.
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I'd heard about it multiple times before, but when I was looking into it, yeah, it seemed like to me that there was just panic everywhere.
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No one really knew what was going on, and I'm legitimately surprised that Tylenol was able to weather the storm in that.
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I'm surprised it's still a company after that big, huge thing that happened.
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And if you're listening right now and you're like, what in the heck is even talking about?
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It's the Tylenol murders. It's a story I covered back some time ago on the podcast. If you search for it, you'll find it.
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It was a crazy case.
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Alright, if you're a brand new listener to the podcast, welcome in. Make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening right now.
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That is your episode for today. Thank you again for listening to 10 Minute Murder. See you next time.
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next time.
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,600
In 1970, a psychiatrist in Birmingham, Alabama, wrote down five words that should have changed everything.
2
00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:12,800
Paranoids gets a frenic with homicidal impulses.
3
00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:17,600
The patient was a 23-year-old man named Jack Harrison Treywick.
4
00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:25,600
Those five words were a prediction, and for the next 22 years, nobody did anything to stop what was coming.
5
00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:48,600
[Music]
6
00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:58,400
There's this moment in 1970 where someone actually writes it down. A psychiatrist sits across from Jack Harrison Treywick and puts it in his file.
7
00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:04,600
Paranoids gets a frenic with homicidal impulses. And they let him go.
8
00:01:04,600 --> 00:01:12,200
Two years later, Jack Treywick is driving through downtown Birmingham when he sees 17-year-old Betty Joe Richards.
9
00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:21,800
He later said that he decided he wanted to "do something" to her. That's how he phrases it. "Do something" like "she's a project."
10
00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:26,600
He forces her into his car with a knife. He drives her to Quentin, Alabama.
11
00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:31,000
Witnesses report a white man chasing a screaming lady into an alley.
12
00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:36,600
This is happening in public. This is frenzy playing out where people can watch.
13
00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:44,600
He stabs Betty Joe Richards more than 10 times in that alley. Then he walks away. It goes back to his life in Birmingham.
14
00:01:44,600 --> 00:01:53,400
The case goes cold, and Jack Treywick, the man diagnosed with homicidal impulses, remains free for 20 more years.
15
00:01:53,400 --> 00:02:05,400
According to Treywick's later confessions, he travels. In 1978, he claims he strangled a woman in Alaska through her body off a ferry between Prince Rupert and Ketchikan.
16
00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:09,800
That method of disposal almost guarantees you'll never find the body.
17
00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:15,400
That same year, he says he strangled a female hitchhiker while visiting his sister in Oregon.
18
00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:23,400
Hitchhikers in the late 70s were almost invisible to law enforcement. Transient. Almost nobody reported them missing for weeks.
19
00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:32,400
These confessions were never corroborated with physical evidence, but they fit the profile of someone who understands that if you kill in different jurisdictions,
20
00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:42,400
if you keep moving, the dots never get connected. By 1980, something shifts in Treywick's approach. He gets arrested for phone harassment,
21
00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:49,400
calling women and telling them their husbands have been killed or seriously injured. He's getting off on their immediate terror,
22
00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:58,400
that moment where their world collapses. This is a different kind of violence. No blood, there's no body, no forensic evidence.
23
00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:07,400
Psychological torture delivered through a phone line. He also starts impersonating police officers, yet sentenced to two years for it.
24
00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:14,400
He learns that authority makes people comply, a badge, a uniform, that can get you what you want.
25
00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:23,400
By 1992, whatever was holding Jack Treywick together disintegrates. He later describes his need to kill as an addiction.
26
00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:31,400
He writes, quote, "The body rush from murder does become addictive. It altered brain chemistry and physical need."
27
00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:40,400
Like some people need heroin, apparently Jack needed to kill. On June 17, 1992, he encounters Eileen Pruitt.
28
00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:48,400
She's 26, recently separated, dealing with the cocaine addiction, vulnerable in all the ways that make someone an easy target.
29
00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:56,400
He picks her up in Birmingham. She tells him to drive to a dirt road behind Hillcrest Hospital. It starts as a transaction.
30
00:03:56,400 --> 00:04:03,400
Then it becomes a slaughter. He stabs her in the throat to stop her from screaming, but he doesn't stop.
31
00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:10,400
When they eventually find Eileen Pruitt's body two days later, the medical examiner counts 57 stab wounds.
32
00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:19,400
57, the number tells you this is rage that's been building for decades, finally finding an outlet.
33
00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:27,400
There's this detail from his confession. He says he felt a moment of remorse when he found a photo of her young son in her purse.
34
00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:34,400
Not remorse for Eileen. Remorse for the kid. The mother was just an object to him.
35
00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:42,400
Four months later, October 9, 1992, Traywick is at a shopping mall when he spots Stephanie Gatch.
36
00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:50,400
She's 21, a college student going about her normal day. He hunts her. He follows her from the mall to her apartment complex.
37
00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:56,400
Watches her routine. Waits until she's transitioning from her car to her home.
38
00:04:56,400 --> 00:05:03,400
That parking lot is where he makes his move. He's got a gun. It's a toy. Plastic. Completely fake.
39
00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:11,400
But Stephanie doesn't know that. He forces her into his white Toyota van. The fake gun is brilliant in a terrible way.
40
00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:18,400
It gives him control without the noise of a real weapon, authority, and the appearance of danger get compliance.
41
00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:24,400
He drives her to an isolated area near Grants Mill Road. He beats her with the ball-pean hammer.
42
00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:31,400
He strangles her. He stabs her through the heart with an 11-inch knife. He throws her body off an embankment.
43
00:05:31,400 --> 00:05:36,400
Then he goes home, cleans the blood out of his van, scrubbing carpet, wiping down surfaces.
44
00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:42,400
This is a man who knows cleaning up a crime scene matters. That's how you keep from getting caught.
45
00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:52,400
This detail becomes crucial later when his lawyers try to argue insanity. How do you claim you can't understand right from wrong when you're destroying the evidence?
46
00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:58,400
Within weeks of killing Stephanie, there are reports of attempted abductions around Birmingham.
47
00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:06,400
Multiple women describe a white Toyota van. On October 26, 1992, police bring Traywick in for questioning.
48
00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:11,400
In the second interview, detectives ask him directly about the Stephanie Gashmurder.
49
00:06:11,400 --> 00:06:15,400
By the third interview, on October 29, he cracks.
50
00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:19,400
In the fourth interview, that same day, he confesses to everything.
51
00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:26,400
The real evidence comes from the van. Forensic scientists find fibers on Stephanie's sweater that match the carpet in Traywick's van.
52
00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:29,400
The same with the duct tape over her mouth.
53
00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:36,400
Luminol reveals blood traces on tarp, on the carpet, on that ball-peen hammer, on the 11-inch knife.
54
00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:41,400
The van is a mobile crime scene. Every surface tells the story.
55
00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:51,400
When Jack Traywick goes to trial in 1994 for "Capital Murder," his defense is not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
56
00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:57,400
His lawyers present his entire psychiatric history. The prosecution walks the jury through the crime.
57
00:06:57,400 --> 00:07:03,400
He stalked Stephanie from a mall. He used a fake gun, drove her to an isolated location.
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He cleaned his van. These are actions of a predator who knows what he's doing and he wants to get away with it.
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During the trial, Traywick's mother testifies about how her son was emotionally restricted, she said.
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When Traywick's father died, despite him being close, Jack never shed a single tear.
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The jury rejects his insanity defense. Jack Traywick is convicted of "Capital Murder" and sentenced to die by lethal injection.
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In 1995, he stands trial for "Island Proof its Murder."
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The jury hears an audio tape of his confession describing those 57 stab wounds.
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His momentary remorse over the photo of her son.
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He's convicted again, sentenced to life without parole.
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Jack Traywick ends up on death row and Holman Correctional Facility.
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And you'd think that's where the story ends, but Traywick finds a way to keep killing.
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But in a different form. He starts corresponding with the pinpal who runs a website dedicated to his crimes.
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Through this person, Traywick begins publishing sadistic pornography.
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Detailed accounts about his murders, he describes the mechanics of strangulation. He writes, "I would do the whole thing again knowing death row was waiting for me."
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He's not expressing remorse anymore, he's reliving the crimes.
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He also creates drawings, graphic sketches of mutilated women, headless corpses, torture scenes.
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In 2007, he tries to sell these drawings online.
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The situation exposes a massive loophole. Prison officials can screen physical mail, but content sent to third parties who publish it online is protected by the First Amendment.
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Traywick has figured out how to weaponize the internet.
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The outrage pushes Stephanie's mom, Mary Kate Gatch, into advocacy.
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She becomes a driving force behind legislation to prevent killers from profiting from their crimes and redirect any money to victims' families.
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For 15 years, his legal team fights the execution. On November 17, 2008, the Supreme Court denies his final appeal.
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On June 11, 2009, Jack Harrison Traywick is prepared for execution.
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His last meal is fried chicken, french fries, onion soup, and a roll.
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In his final words, "The man who spent years taunting mothers, offers an apology."
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He says, "I wish to apologize to the people whom I've hurt, and I ask their forgiveness. I don't deserve it, but I do ask for it."
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Whether that apology is real or one final manipulation, we'll never know.
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He's pronounced dead at 6.17 pm by lethal injection.
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The thing about Jack Traywick's case that stays with me is that 1970 diagnosis, paranoid schizophrenia with homicidal impulses.
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Someone wrote that down. Someone knew. And the system let him walk right back out into Birmingham, Alabama.
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Betty Joe Richards died in 1972.
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Eileen Pruitt died in 1992, stabbed 57 times. Stephanie Gatch died four months later.
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Stephanie's mom didn't just simply grieve. She fought. She turned her rage into legislation.
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She made sure killers like Traywick couldn't profit from the worst things they've ever done.
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The case didn't end with the execution. It ended with the mother who outlasted her daughter's killer, and she changed the law.
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That is the legacy. Not Traywick's twisted writings or his drawings.
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The legacy is the families who survived him and made sure he didn't get the last word.
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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, bingeable true crime stories.
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My name is Joe. Happy to be your host, and here's an email from one of you that listens.
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Subject that Tylenol story detail messed me up.
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Hey Joe, I've heard the Tylenol murders cover a lot, but the way you explained it, how quickly the fear spread really stuck with me.
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The part about the story is pulling the products off the shelves before anyone even knew what was happening was something that I never really thought about before.
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I always knew it was a big case, but I don't think I understood how fast it changed daily life until you laid it out like that.
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That detail made it click in a way that it never had before. Lauren in Naperville, Illinois.
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And Lauren, thank you for the email, and I can tell you when I was researching that case, I knew that it was a big case.
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I'd heard about it multiple times before, but when I was looking into it, yeah, it seemed like to me that there was just panic everywhere.
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No one really knew what was going on, and I'm legitimately surprised that Tylenol was able to weather the storm in that.
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I'm surprised it's still a company after that big, huge thing that happened.
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And if you're listening right now and you're like, what in the heck is even talking about?
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It's the Tylenol murders. It's a story I covered back some time ago on the podcast. If you search for it, you'll find it.
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It was a crazy case.
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Alright, if you're a brand new listener to the podcast, welcome in. Make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening right now.
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If you're an OG listener, my whole heart loves you and yours. Make sure you go to 10minuteMurder.com and check out all the things that are there, including signing up for the weekly newsletter that I send out.
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You can also read the Murder Blog and email me like Lauren did.
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If you enjoy the podcast, make sure you are sharing it with your friends and your family. That's all I ask. And that's going to do it.
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That is your episode for today. Thank you again for listening to 10 Minute Murder. See you next time.
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next time.
