The Roadside Strangler

WEBVTT

1
00:00:08.919 --> 00:00:42.880
Dispression. Mister Michael Ross's childhood growing
up on a Connecticut chicken farm might have

2
00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:47.679
looked idyllic from the outside if you
like chicken farms, but in reality,

3
00:00:47.799 --> 00:00:52.520
he was raised in a household full
of turmoil. Born in nineteen fifty nine,

4
00:00:52.679 --> 00:00:57.640
Michael was the eldest of Patricia Lane
and Dan Ross's four children, and

5
00:00:57.679 --> 00:01:02.840
he was also Patricia's least faith.
She was physically abusive to all of her

6
00:01:02.920 --> 00:01:07.280
kids, but Michael was the one
who received the most severe beatings. As

7
00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:11.640
well as the abuse that she dished
out, Patricia also abandoned her young family

8
00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:15.359
for a period of time while the
children were young, and at one point

9
00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:21.920
she was institutionalized. As a young
child, Michael was allegedly sexually abused by

10
00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:25.599
one of his uncles, and when
he was six, that uncle took his

11
00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:29.799
own life. After living through his
own sexual abuse, Michael went on to

12
00:01:29.840 --> 00:01:34.799
molest two girls during his preteens.
Even after his victims came forward about the

13
00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:38.840
assaults, he repeatedly insisted that he
had not assaulted the girls, they'd just

14
00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:45.719
been playing doctors together. As punishment
for these incidents, he was once again

15
00:01:45.799 --> 00:01:49.120
beaten by his parents. Despite becoming
a sexual offender at a young age,

16
00:01:49.159 --> 00:01:56.200
Michael was surprisingly successful as a student, keeping to himself but maintaining good grades.

17
00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:00.519
When he graduated high school, he
decided to study economics at Cornell University,

18
00:02:00.719 --> 00:02:05.439
New York, and it was during
this time at Cornell that he truly

19
00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:10.719
developed his habit of obsessively stalking young
women. The stalking started during his sophomore

20
00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:15.479
year and escalated to sexually assaulting one
of his victims during his final year of

21
00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:21.919
college. Michael graduated from Cornell in
May nineteen eighty one, and that same

22
00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:27.080
month, he committed his first murder. Just like the stalking, Once Michael

23
00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:31.080
started to kill his victims after assaulting
them, he didn't stop. Between May

24
00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:36.759
nineteen eighty one and June nineteen eighty
four, Michael took the lives of at

25
00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:42.120
least eight confirmed female victims. The
oldest victim was also his first, a

26
00:02:42.199 --> 00:02:46.599
twenty five year old student, and
the youngest were only fourteen years old when

27
00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:51.919
he killed them. Michael followed a
clear pattern when carrying out his crimes.

28
00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:55.199
He picked up most of his victims
while they were out hitch hiking or walking

29
00:02:55.240 --> 00:03:00.080
along the road side. He then
kidnapped and sexually assaulted them before strangling them

30
00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:05.800
to death. Strangely, he never
looked his victims in the eye while killing

31
00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:09.080
them. Instead, he strangled them
from behind. He made some effort to

32
00:03:09.159 --> 00:03:14.120
dispose of the bodies in remote locations, but not enough to prevent the remains

33
00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:19.520
from eventually being discovered. As law
enforcement and the media began to pick up

34
00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:23.840
on the connection between the crimes,
Michael was given the nickname the Roadside Strangler.

35
00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:29.840
On the thirteenth of June nineteen eighty
four, Michael picked up seventeen year

36
00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:35.560
old Wendy Beerboult, not knowing that
she would be his last victim. Just

37
00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:39.159
like the seven girls before her,
Wendy was sexually assaulted and strangled, and

38
00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:44.639
her remains were discovered several days later. However, unlike the other victims,

39
00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:49.879
multiple witnesses had seen the abduction take
place, and their detailed descriptions of the

40
00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:55.000
Roadside Strangler's vehicle eventually led authorities to
Michael Ross, who happened to live close

41
00:03:55.039 --> 00:04:00.560
to the dump sites where each of
the bodies had been discovered. When Michael

42
00:04:00.680 --> 00:04:04.919
was confronted and arrested, he went
quietly, even confessing that he was the

43
00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:10.639
killer. He agreed to take investigators
to the locations where he had dumped several

44
00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:15.439
of the bodies. In late nineteen
eighty five, he pleaded no contest to

45
00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:18.680
two murders, resulting in a one
hundred twenty year prison sentence. And I

46
00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:21.839
know what you're thinking at this point, Joe, were four minutes into the

47
00:04:21.879 --> 00:04:26.360
story, and this sounds kind of
like the end, but it's far from

48
00:04:26.399 --> 00:04:30.839
the end. In July nineteen eighty
seven, Michael was found guilty of committing

49
00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:34.079
another four of the eight murders that
he confessed to, and this time a

50
00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:39.560
judge sentenced him to death. For
more than seventeen years, he was imprisoned

51
00:04:39.879 --> 00:04:43.920
waiting for the dates of his execution. During his time on death row,

52
00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:47.720
Michael was discovered to have been the
perpetrator of another murder, the killing of

53
00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:53.839
sixteen year old Paula Pereira in nineteen
eighty two, resulting in another eight years

54
00:04:53.879 --> 00:04:58.680
being added to his sentence. Despite
her young age, Paula had struggled with

55
00:04:58.759 --> 00:05:01.399
mental health issues, and the year
before her murder, she had even tried

56
00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:06.439
to take her own life by overdosing. However, she survived the suicide attempt,

57
00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:10.879
and when her peers at school found
out, they only started making fun

58
00:05:10.920 --> 00:05:15.680
of her, calling her Tailnow.
Because of that bullying, Paula stopped taking

59
00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:19.160
the bus to school, choosing instead
to hitchhike. Her boyfriend tried to convince

60
00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:23.480
her to take the bus because he
was worried about her safety, but Paula

61
00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:28.439
told him only nice people picked me
up. Then, in March nineteen eighty

62
00:05:28.439 --> 00:05:31.480
two, Paula hitchhiked home from school, and the driver of the car was

63
00:05:31.600 --> 00:05:36.360
the last person to see her alive. Almost three weeks after Paula disappeared,

64
00:05:36.639 --> 00:05:40.319
her body was found dumped on the
side of the road in New York.

65
00:05:40.920 --> 00:05:45.519
She had been sexually assaulted and strangled
to death. For more than a decade,

66
00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:49.240
that case was unsolved until Michael admitted
that he had been involved in two

67
00:05:49.319 --> 00:05:54.040
murders in New York, one of
which seemed to match the details of the

68
00:05:54.079 --> 00:06:00.600
Paula Perera case. To confirm Michael's
claims, investigators collected and analyzed my DNA,

69
00:06:00.040 --> 00:06:04.160
comparing it to samples that had been
taken from Paula's clothing. The samples

70
00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:09.399
matched. Michael had been the driver
who picked up Paula while she was trying

71
00:06:09.439 --> 00:06:13.560
to catch a ride home from school. During one of his police interviews about

72
00:06:13.560 --> 00:06:16.800
Paula's murder, Michael admitted quote,
as soon as I saw her, she

73
00:06:16.920 --> 00:06:21.079
was dead. While Michael was imprisoned, he found love with a woman named

74
00:06:21.199 --> 00:06:26.879
Susan Powers, who quickly became his
fiancee. She didn't care that he was

75
00:06:26.920 --> 00:06:30.439
a serial killer. She loved him
anyway and believed that he'd changed his ways.

76
00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:35.160
Although Susan eventually broke up with Michael, she remained loyal to him and

77
00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:39.600
kept visiting him in prison for the
rest of his life. As well as

78
00:06:39.639 --> 00:06:44.399
his bond with Susan, Michael spent
a lot of time behind Barr's exploring religion,

79
00:06:44.920 --> 00:06:48.519
as he had quickly turned to Catholicism
after he was arrested. Before long,

80
00:06:48.680 --> 00:06:54.160
he was a practicing Catholic, praying
the Rosary every single day and having

81
00:06:54.199 --> 00:06:59.600
regular meetings with priests. Catholicism gave
Michael a deep sense of peace about his

82
00:06:59.639 --> 00:07:02.879
own wae mortality. Even though he
did not agree morally with the death penalty,

83
00:07:03.639 --> 00:07:08.199
which is ironic, he began to
agree with the decision that he should

84
00:07:08.199 --> 00:07:13.000
personally be sentenced to death, claiming
that this was because he wanted to spare

85
00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:16.600
his victim's families any more pain.
He was aware that the process of changing

86
00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:21.000
his death sentence to a less severe
penalty would result in countless hours in court,

87
00:07:21.560 --> 00:07:26.000
during which the families of his victims
would have to relive their trauma.

88
00:07:26.639 --> 00:07:30.759
A Cornell University graduates named Kathy Yeager
argued that Michael was able to accept his

89
00:07:30.839 --> 00:07:36.240
death sentence because he truly believed his
sins were forgiven by God, including all

90
00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:41.800
of those sexual assaults and murders he'd
committed. He's not being punished, she

91
00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:46.000
said. He's moving on to life
eternal. That's what is ironic about the

92
00:07:46.040 --> 00:07:51.040
death penalty. He's looking forward to
the peace. Finally, Michael's execution was

93
00:07:51.079 --> 00:07:56.519
scheduled for the twenty sixth of January
two thousand and five. Only one hour

94
00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:01.360
beforehand, his lawyer managed to arrange
a stay of exit acution, putting the

95
00:08:01.399 --> 00:08:05.680
execution on hold for another two days. It was rescheduled for two a m.

96
00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:09.160
On the twenty ninth of January,
but once again it was postponed,

97
00:08:09.639 --> 00:08:15.600
this time because there were doubts about
Michael's mental competence after his lawyer claimed that

98
00:08:15.639 --> 00:08:20.000
he was affected by a condition called
death Row syndrome, which was known to

99
00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.879
cause delusions and suicidal tendencies and people
who had spent a long time waiting for

100
00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:30.720
their execution dates. Despite the allegations
of death row syndrome, the execution went

101
00:08:30.759 --> 00:08:35.960
ahead several months later. Michael Ross
died on the thirteenth of May two thousand

102
00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.440
and five at the age of forty
five. He was executed by lethal injection.

103
00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:45.120
Shortly before the execution was carried out, he was asked if he had

104
00:08:45.159 --> 00:08:48.879
any last words, and, keeping
his eyes closed, he calmly responded,

105
00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:54.000
no, thank you. It was
the first execution to take place in New

106
00:08:54.039 --> 00:08:58.600
England in more than four decades,
and the only lethal injection to ever take

107
00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:01.600
place in the state of Cannet.
When Michael died, he was more than

108
00:09:01.639 --> 00:09:07.440
twice the age of most of his
victims. He graduated college, found love,

109
00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:11.639
and found religion. Despite the legal
drama surrounding his execution, he died

110
00:09:11.720 --> 00:09:16.399
peacefully, a privilege that he had
already taken from each of the girls that

111
00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:35.799
he murdered. That is ten Minute
Murder for today brief and bingeable true crime.

112
00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:39.440
I'm Joe the host, and thank
you for taking the time to listen

113
00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:45.039
to ten Minute Murder. If you're
a brand new listener, welcome super pumped

114
00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:48.320
that you're here. Make sure you
hit subscribe before you move on to binge

115
00:09:48.360 --> 00:09:50.840
on more episodes, or go on
with your day to day activities, or

116
00:09:50.840 --> 00:09:54.360
maybe go to sleep. A lot
of people listen to this while they're going

117
00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:56.840
to sleep. That's cool too.
Hit subscribe wherever you're listening right now,

118
00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:03.519
and follow me on all the social
media places Facebook, Instagram, TikTok.

119
00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:07.120
I'm sure there's more. I'm on
more of those than that, but those

120
00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:09.240
are the main ones that I really
push content to. Also, if you've

121
00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:11.879
got a case that you want to
talk to me about, email it to

122
00:10:11.960 --> 00:10:15.879
me Joe at ten minute Murder dot
com. You can go to the website

123
00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:20.279
ten minute Murder dot com and find
all the things about the podcast. And

124
00:10:20.360 --> 00:10:22.519
you might look at this episode that
we've talked about today and think, well,

125
00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:26.200
Joe must be super pro the death
penalty, and I don't think we're

126
00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:31.039
ready to have that conversation about the
death penalty. I will tell you that

127
00:10:31.159 --> 00:10:35.879
I am not in favor of the
death penalty, which I know sounds weird

128
00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:41.000
hearing me say that. A guy
that does a podcast about murders and murderers,

129
00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:43.919
the death penalty is mentioned pretty often
and I don't seem too upset about

130
00:10:43.919 --> 00:10:48.120
it. That's because I get it. I understand why people would be pro

131
00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:54.080
death penalty. I happen to be
not pro death penalty. And I've talked

132
00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:56.120
about this subject with other people and
they were like, well, what if

133
00:10:56.159 --> 00:11:00.480
it was one of your family members
that was murdered? How would you then

134
00:11:00.559 --> 00:11:03.919
you would feel different about the death
penalty then, And I said, you're

135
00:11:03.960 --> 00:11:09.360
probably right, which is why I
don't get super passionate on this podcast about

136
00:11:09.399 --> 00:11:11.240
it. I do get that there
are two sides to it. I just

137
00:11:11.240 --> 00:11:15.200
happen to fall on one of the
sides, the things that you shouldn't kill

138
00:11:15.240 --> 00:11:20.799
people, but also totally respect your
opinion and belief that you should kill killers.

139
00:11:20.440 --> 00:11:24.080
And if you think that sounds weird
coming out in mouth words, then

140
00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:28.840
imagine that living in my brain and
the two sides of that conflicting. It's

141
00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:31.559
weird. Anyway. That's the episode
for today. Thank you so much for

142
00:11:31.559 --> 00:11:35.320
taking the time to listen. Bye.