The Riverside Prostitute Killer William Suff

WEBVTT

1
00:00:49.479 --> 00:00:54.840
William lester Seff was convicted of his
first crime in nineteen seventy four, when

2
00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:59.520
he and his wife, Terrell,
were accused of fatally beating their infant daughter.

3
00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:03.280
Although Terrell's conviction for the murder was
eventually reversed because of a lack of

4
00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:10.480
evidence, William ended up receiving a
seventy year sentence, but after only a

5
00:01:10.519 --> 00:01:15.920
decade behind bars, he was released
on parole. By now, William was

6
00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:19.879
thirty four years old, and he
seemed to turn his life around, getting

7
00:01:19.879 --> 00:01:23.079
a job as a stock clerk in
Riverside County, California. He found it

8
00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:26.439
easy to make friends in the area, and those who knew him described him

9
00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:32.959
as a friendly nerd who was always
doing things to help people when he wasn't

10
00:01:32.959 --> 00:01:37.439
at work. He was passionate about
being a cook a chef, and he

11
00:01:37.480 --> 00:01:42.439
wrote his own cookbooks and even won
prizes for his homemade chili in local cooking

12
00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:47.680
competitions. Two years after William was
released from prison, a body was found

13
00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:52.200
at a drainage ditch in Riverside.
A member of the public was walking along

14
00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:56.879
picking up aluminum cans when he saw
a young woman lying on her back covered

15
00:01:56.879 --> 00:02:00.400
in blood and wearing clothes that had
been ripped and shredded. The man stepped

16
00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:06.040
closer, realized that the woman was
dead and quickly ran to get help.

17
00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:12.759
Although the female victim had been severely
mutilated, her face was identifiable. Her

18
00:02:12.840 --> 00:02:17.159
name was Michelle Yvette Gaudierrez and she
was only twenty three when she died.

19
00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:23.520
Her autopsy revealed that she had been
strangled, stabbed in the torso, buttocks,

20
00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:28.319
and face, and her genitals had
been deliberately mutilated. It was clear

21
00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:34.000
that Michelle's death was murder, and
although investigators thoroughly searched the scene for evidence,

22
00:02:34.439 --> 00:02:38.319
they had no clues pointing them towards
the perpetrator. Only two weeks later,

23
00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:43.960
another body was found. A twenty
four year old homeless woman, Charlotte

24
00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:47.199
Palmer, had been dumped by the
roadside, only twenty five miles away from

25
00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:53.000
where Michele Gudierrez had been discovered.
However, unlike Michelle, Charlotte's body had

26
00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:58.560
been exposed to the elements for a
long time, and her autopsy wasn't helpful

27
00:02:58.599 --> 00:03:01.800
to reveal any information. In fact, her cause of death was ruled as

28
00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:07.800
inconclusive. The next death came in
January nineteen eighty seven, when thirty seven

29
00:03:07.879 --> 00:03:12.879
year old Linda Ortega's body was found
by a road in the city of Lake

30
00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:16.280
Elsinore. It was clear that her
remains had been left there for quite a

31
00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:21.400
while. The medical examiner estimated that
she had been killed at least three days

32
00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:27.840
before the body was found, possibly
even longer. Now California law enforcement was

33
00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:31.319
aware that they had found the mutilated
bodies of three women, all disposed of

34
00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:36.280
in a very similar way. For
the first time, they were starting to

35
00:03:36.319 --> 00:03:40.000
wonder if they were dealing with a
serial offender. Three months later, twenty

36
00:03:40.039 --> 00:03:45.639
seven year old sex worker Martha Young
was found dead in a ravine only a

37
00:03:45.639 --> 00:03:50.840
few miles away from Linda Ortega's body. Martha was strip naked, had high

38
00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:54.400
levels of amphetamines in her system,
and had died around three weeks before she

39
00:03:54.520 --> 00:04:00.120
was discovered. Her autopsy ruled her
cause of death as being a combination of

40
00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:08.039
strangulation and a drug overdose. Martha's
death confirmed police suspicions a serial killer was

41
00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:14.439
at work and Riverside targeting vulnerable women
whose disappearances were less likely to be discovered

42
00:04:14.520 --> 00:04:18.240
quickly. The Riverside Police formed a
task force dedicated to solving the case.

43
00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:26.040
And almost immediately the killings stopped.
It was as if the murderer was aware

44
00:04:26.120 --> 00:04:30.519
that the police were on to him
and either stopped his crimes or found a

45
00:04:30.519 --> 00:04:34.839
new way of disposing his victims.
For two full years, there was complete

46
00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:40.839
silence from the Riverside Killer until the
body of a thirty seven year old sex

47
00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:46.879
worker was found partially buried on the
shore of Lake Elsinore. Linda may Ruiz

48
00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:51.079
had died from asphyxiation, her head
had been partially buried, and her throat

49
00:04:51.160 --> 00:04:56.720
was full of sand. Once again, the case didn't move forward for another

50
00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:00.639
six months, and then another prostitute
was found dead. The task force was

51
00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:04.480
devastated to learn that another victim appeared
to have been taken by the killer.

52
00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:10.959
Kimberly Little was a twenty eight year
old woman who shared many characteristics with the

53
00:05:11.079 --> 00:05:15.199
Riverside Killer's previous victims. She had
been under the influence of drugs and alcohol,

54
00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:19.519
and she was a sex worker,
and she had been killed by asphyxiation.

55
00:05:20.279 --> 00:05:24.959
However, Kimberly's body provided the task
force with something that they had been

56
00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:29.600
searching for, physical evidence that they
could use to narrow down their search.

57
00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:33.759
During Kimberly's autopsy, several pieces of
clothing, fiber, and a couple of

58
00:05:33.800 --> 00:05:39.759
pubic hairs were found which were confirmed
to not belong to her. While this

59
00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:44.000
evidence alone could not be used to
identify who the murderer was, it would

60
00:05:44.040 --> 00:05:49.000
be incredibly useful if investigators had a
suspect and mind. Kimberly's murder was also

61
00:05:49.079 --> 00:05:54.800
the crime that truly brought the case
into the public eye. Reporters from nearby

62
00:05:54.879 --> 00:05:59.680
towns began traveling to Riverside to find
out more about the debts, and before

63
00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:04.600
long, the media had nicknamed the
murderer the Lake Elsinor Killer and the Riverside

64
00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:11.759
prostitute killer. The police captain ended
up holding multiple press conferences about the murders

65
00:06:11.800 --> 00:06:15.399
in an attempt to stop the public
from panicking. He insisted that the task

66
00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:19.720
force was pulling out all the stops
in order to find the culprit. But

67
00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:25.360
even though the task force was working
endlessly, they seemed to be no closer

68
00:06:25.399 --> 00:06:30.759
to apprehending the Riverside killer. In
November nineteen eighty nine, thirty six year

69
00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:35.040
old sex worker Judy Lynn Angel was
found dead close to Lake Elsinore. It

70
00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:40.839
was clear during the autopsy that Judy
had not died quickly. In fact,

71
00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:46.399
she had viciously fought back, sustaining
deep defensive wounds to her hands, before

72
00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:50.279
she was overpowered. Her skull had
been crushed by multiple blows to her head

73
00:06:50.279 --> 00:06:55.560
and face, and her body had
been mutilated. After Judy's murder, the

74
00:06:55.639 --> 00:07:00.160
killer seemed to become more and more
bold. It was as if he was

75
00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:04.519
less afraid of being caught. He
was killing more frequently, sometimes posing the

76
00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:10.160
bodies of his victims or torturing them
in new ways. But the key details

77
00:07:10.199 --> 00:07:14.720
of the cases remained the same,
making it easy for law enforcement to link

78
00:07:14.759 --> 00:07:18.839
the crimes together. The first real
break in the case came in August nineteen

79
00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:23.279
ninety one, when a sex worker
was picked up by a man in a

80
00:07:23.319 --> 00:07:28.399
gray van out of nowhere. The
man became angry and violent, and the

81
00:07:28.439 --> 00:07:31.959
woman managed to escape from his vehicle
and run away, only for the same

82
00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:36.399
man to then pick up one of
her friends, twenty three year old Kelly

83
00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:42.360
Hammond. Kelly's body was found that
same day on the side of the road.

84
00:07:42.839 --> 00:07:46.000
She had been strangled to death so
recently that she was still warm.

85
00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:49.720
The survivor, who had managed to
escape from the killer's car, provided a

86
00:07:49.759 --> 00:07:55.800
description which was used to create a
composite sketch. Over the rest of nineteen

87
00:07:55.879 --> 00:08:00.199
ninety one, the killer was still
at large, taking at least one victim

88
00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:05.560
every month. By October, the
Riverside Killer's body count was at eighteen,

89
00:08:05.120 --> 00:08:09.120
and he had started to mutilate the
bodies of some of his victims by removing

90
00:08:09.160 --> 00:08:13.879
their right breasts. It also seemed
like he was starting to toy with the

91
00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:20.639
task force, placing their bodies in
locations near the police station to taunt them.

92
00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:24.920
On the ninth of January nineteen ninety
two, a police officer pulled over

93
00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:28.720
a gray van that matched the description
of the Riverside Killer's vehicle. The driver

94
00:08:30.120 --> 00:08:33.720
was William suff who had now been
out of prison for almost two decades.

95
00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:39.720
After discovering that William had an expired
vehicle registration and a suspended license, the

96
00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:46.440
officers took him back to the station. During hours of questioning, William denied

97
00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:50.799
any knowledge of the crimes, but
he was still arrested and samples of his

98
00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:54.799
hair were taken to compare to the
samples from the bodies of the Riverside Killer's

99
00:08:54.879 --> 00:09:01.000
victims. Ultimately, Judge Becky Dugan
ruled that there was sufficient evidence of William's

100
00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:05.440
guilt for the case to go to
trial. In March nineteen ninety five,

101
00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:11.840
the trial began. The prosecution described
William as a sexual sadist who got pleasure

102
00:09:11.879 --> 00:09:16.480
from torturing and killing his victims.
A criminologist from the Department of Justice testified

103
00:09:16.759 --> 00:09:22.440
that William's hair matched samples taken from
two of the crime scenes, and so

104
00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:28.039
did fibers from William's clothing, sleeping
bag, and betting. After almost fifty

105
00:09:28.120 --> 00:09:33.519
days of testimony, the jury found
William suff guilty of twelve counts of first

106
00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:37.639
degree murder, and he was sentenced
to death. Despite the Riverside killing now

107
00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:43.919
having received justice, one question remained
unanswered. What had he done with the

108
00:09:43.960 --> 00:09:48.120
breasts that he cut out of two
of his victims. Although it has not

109
00:09:48.200 --> 00:09:52.240
been confirmed, it is highly suspected
that William may have used human meat in

110
00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:58.639
his award winning homemade chili, which
he then fed to the employees of Riverside

111
00:09:58.639 --> 00:10:13.960
County. That's ten minute murder for
today brief and bingeable True Crime. I'm

112
00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:18.120
Joe, I'm the host, and
thank you for taking the time to listen

113
00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:20.879
to ten minute Murder and I hope
you weren't eating right there toward the end

114
00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:24.639
of that kind of snuck the gross
backed in there on you. Sorry about

115
00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:28.080
that, and if you are eating, I just hope it wasn't chilly.

116
00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:31.559
Hey. If you're a new listener
to ten Minute Murder, make sure you

117
00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:37.000
hit subscribe wherever you're listening right now. That's going to more easily help you

118
00:10:37.039 --> 00:10:39.799
catch up on all the back episodes
and when the new ones come out,

119
00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:43.279
you'll be first in line to get
those. If you enjoy the podcast,

120
00:10:43.360 --> 00:10:46.960
share it with your friends and family. And if you listen on a place

121
00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:50.919
that allows ratings and reviews like Spotify
or Apple Podcasts, go ahead and leave

122
00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:54.200
that. Leave a five star review
for ten Minute Murder. That helps the

123
00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:58.399
show grow. Plus it makes me
love you more, not that it's a

124
00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:01.399
competition. If you want to get
in touch with me, my email address

125
00:11:01.480 --> 00:11:05.480
is Joe at ten minute Murder dot
com and the website is ten minute Murder

126
00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:09.720
dot com. That's going to do
it. That's your episode for today.

127
00:11:09.840 --> 00:11:11.799
Thank you so much for listening to
ten Minute Murder.