By Kaitlyn Richards

Ohio inmate Ronald Post, who is appealing his death sentence on the premise that his weight would make it cruel and unusual punishment.

Ronald Post, an Ohio inmate sentenced to the death penalty, claims that he is “too obese” to be executed. Post shot and killed a hotel clerk, Helen Vantz, in Ohio almost thirty years ago, and is scheduled to be executed on January 16, 2013. The condemned inmate argues that his weight, vein access, and other medical problems would give executioners problems during the procedure. Post, weighing 480 pounds, argues that his history of difficulty losing weight would put him through a “torturous and lingering death”; his lawyers claim additionally that his current physical and medical conditions would put him at immense risk for serious physical and psychological pain.

Ronald Post’s case is similar to several other death penalty issues regarding the weight of condemned inmates. In 2008, a convicted double murderer, Richard Cooey, was sentenced to the death penalty, but his lawyers argued that he was too obese to be executed by lethal injection. They claimed that due to Cooey’s previously limited access to food and limited opportunities to exercise, it would be difficult for executioners to find a vein for lethal injection. Despite his lawyers’ objections, the 5′ 7″ and 267 lbs Cooey was put to death on October 14, 2008. In a 1994 case from Washington, Mitchell Rupe, previously sentenced to death by hanging, appealed his sentence, arguing that his weight would put him at risk for decapitation, which would constitute as cruel and unusual punishment. Rupe was ultimately sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2006.

American obesity numbers have skyrocketed over the past three decades, threatening to pose even more problems like these in the future.

Helen Vantz was working in the motel Ronald Post was robbing and was killed after he shot her in the back of the head twice. Vantz’s son, still seeking justice for his mother’s murder 30 years later said in response to Post’s request: “I don’t care if they have to wheel him in on a tractor-trailer; 30 years is too long…This is just an excuse to get out of the execution.”

According the Post’s lawyers, medical personnel at Ohio State University had difficulty inserting IVs into Post’s arms, needing three attempts to correctly place the IV. Post has struggled with his weight for years, but knee and back problems make it difficult for him to exercise in prison.

Post’s unusual case raises questions about the circumstances under which the death penalty should or should not be used. Currently, the death penalty is in use in 37 states, while the 13 states and jurisdictions without it claim the death penalty violates their state constitutions, or is just too costly. This particular case shows the number of ethical problems that capital punishment has encountered for years, like who should be put to death, what circumstances would allow a person to not be put on death row, and what are the costs and time it takes for an inmate to be executed?

By Virginia Farrell

In one month it will be the ten year anniversary of the D.C. Sniper shootings.

John Allen Muhammad, the primary organizer behind the Beltway sniper attack

For three weeks in October, 2002, John Allen Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, terrorized the Washington Metropolitan community. The pair used a Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic .223 caliber rifle to take shots through the trunk of their car, which had a small hole drilled in it. Altogether, the pair killed eleven people and wounded six in both the D.C. area spree and their previous shooting spree in Louisiana and Alabama.

The Washington Area shootings started on October 2, 2002, when the snipers fired a shot into a Michaels Craft store in Aspen Hill, Maryland. Thankfully no one was hit, but only an hour later the snipers struck again, shooting and killing 55-year-old James Martin outside of a grocery store in Wheaton, MD. The reign of terror had begun. Five more people of varying ages were shot and killed the following day. Over the next two weeks, four more people were shot and killed, and several more were wounded.The Washington Metropolitan area was in a state of terror, as people were afraid to fill up their cars and pick their children up from school. Several districts canceled school altogether.

A drawing made by Muhammad while in jail

On October 24, police found Muhammad and Malvo sleeping in their car and arrested them on federal weapons charges. They were later able to link the gun to eleven of the fourteen shootings. The consequent trial attempted to understand the motive of the random shootings. Before the trial, the prosecutors had theorized that Muhammad’s intended target was in fact his ex-wife Mildred, who had estranged him from his children. They believed that he had tried to use the other shootings to cover up her intended murder, making it look like the work of a serial killer instead and throwing the blame from him. During the course of the trial, testimony from Muhammad about Jihad suggested terrorist leanings, but his nonsensical rants proved any terrorist connections to be immaterial. When he took the stand against Muhammad, Malvo confessed that their plan had been to extort money from the government and “set up a camp to train children how to terrorize cities” and “shut things down” all across America. As an act of terror against the state, Muhammad’s actions merited the death penalty, and he was executed by lethal injection in 2009. Malvo is currently serving out six life-sentences without the possibility of parole.

For more on Washington Area crimes, visit our D.C. Cases page!

By Virginia Farrell

Worried that antisocial kid in school might grow up to be a cold-blooded murderer? Here’s a handy guide for recognizing the most common serial killer traits. Remember, however, these signs are just a guideline. Think twice before crying “serial killer” on your weird neighbor.

1. Ed Gein circa 1957

   Antisocial Behavior
   Psychopaths have a strong tendency towards antisocial behavior, so watch for extremely antisocial children. That being said, some children develop more slowly, and this is not a definitive sign. Pay attention if a child regresses from being extremely social to extremely anti-social.
   Ed Gein, the inspiration for Psycho’s Norman Bates and Silence of the Lamb’s Buffalo Bill, had no social connections besides his extremely religious and abusive mother, who punished him whenever he tried to make friends. After she died in 1945, Gein began to murder and dig up graves, collecting body parts of women who looked like his mother and trying to make a “woman suit.”

2. Arson
   Many serial killers start as arsonists. Arson is psychologically attractive because it involves manipulating power and control, something that serial killing also offers.
   David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam” killer, was infatuated with pyromania as a child, to the point that other children called him “Pyro.” After being arrested, he took responsibility for dozens of New York arsons. Some sources indicate that he might have been responsible for up to 1,400 fires.

Jeffrey Dahmer’s mugshot from 1982

3. Torturing Small Animals
   This is one of the strongest warning signs. Children who torture or kill small animals like squirrels, birds, cats, and dogs without showing remorse are highly likely to be sociopaths. Many serial killers kill to control others’ lives, and as children, small animals are the only lives they have the power to control.
   Cannibalistic serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer would bike around the woods as a child, collecting dead animals to dissect. Dahmer even killed and dismembered his own puppy, mounting its head on a stake when he was done.

4. Poor Family Life
   Many serial killers come from unstable families with criminal, psychiatric, or alcoholic histories. These killers often have terrible relationships with their families, and often use them as their first victims.
   When he was only fifteen, Ed Kemper, “the Co-ed Killer,” killed his grandparents. After being released at age twenty-one, Kemper killed six female college students. The police finally caught him when Kemper killed his violent, alcoholic mother. He treated his mother’s corpse particularly brutally, decapitating her, using her head as a dart board, and throwing her vocal cords down the garbage disposal.

Highway prostitute Aileen Wuornos would pick up men, shoot them, and rob them.

5. Childhood Abuse
   Many serial killers are abused – physically, psychologically, sexually – as children by a close family member. This behavior instills in the child feelings of humiliation and helpless, feelings which they will later seek to instill in their victims.
   Aileen Wuornos, the prostitute serial killer portrayed by Charlize Theron in Monster, was abandoned by her mother when she was four and never met her father, who was serving time in prison for raping a seven-year-old girl when Aileen was born. Aileen’s grandfather, who took over care of Aileen when her mother left, physically and sexually abused her until she ran away at age fifteen.

6. Substance abuse
   Many serial killers struggle with drug and alcohol abuse.
   Jeffrey Dahmer began drinking in his teens and was an alcoholic by his high school graduation. His alcoholism resulted in both his expulsion from college and his discharge from the military.

Ted Bundy was notoriously charismatic, which helped him disarm his female victims’ suspicions.

7. Voyeurism
   From a young age, many serial killers are interested in voyeurism, sado-masochistic pornography, and fetishism.
   Ted Bundy claimed that, as an adolescent, he would get drunk and stalk around his community at night, looking for undressing women or other titillating sights.

8. Intelligence
   Many serial killers have IQs in the “bright normal” range. Organized serial killers who kill methodically, like John Wayne Gacy or Ted Bundy, have an average I.Q. of 113, while disorganized serial killers have an average I.Q. of 93.
   Ed Kemper had an I.Q. of 136 (140 is often used as the genius mark in I.Q. tests). He used his intelligence to convince psychiatrists to release him after serving only five years for his grandparents’ murders, claiming to have reformed. He hadn’t, and he killed eight more women before being caught again.

9. Shiftlessness
   Despite higher than normal intelligence, many serial killers have trouble keeping jobs or work in unskilled labor.
   After leaving the military, David Berkowitz, who reportedly was of “above-average intelligence,” held several blue-collar jobs before he was captured, including his last one as a postman.

For more information on serial killers, check out our page on John Wayne Gacy, the “Killer-Clown,” as well as our new exhibit on him at the museum!