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| {{Villain_Infobox
| | [[File:Freeway_Phantom.jpg|thumb|272px|A note allegedly written by the Freeway Phantom.]] |
| |image =Freeway_Phantom_note.png | |
| |fullname = Unknown | |
| |alias = Freeway Phantom | |
| |origin = Unknown
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| |occupation = Unknown
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| |type of villain = Serial Killer
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| |goals =
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| |crimes = Serial [[murder]]<br>[[Kidnapping]]<br>[[Rape]]<br>[[Misogyny]]
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| |hobby =
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| }}{{Quote|This is tantamount to my insensitivity to people, especially women. I will admit the others when you catch me, if you can!|Freeway Phantom}}
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| The '''Freeway Phantom''' is an unidentified serial killer who was active in Washington, D.C. from April 1971 through September 1972.
| | The '''Freeway Phantom''' was a serial killer who was active in Washington, D.C. from April 1971 through September 1972. Over this period, he abducted six African-American girls, ranging from ages 10 to 18, sexually assaulted them and killed them - usually via strangulation but also via stabbing a few times - discarding their bodies along the sides of various major highways. |
| ==Background==
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| On the evening of April 25, 1971, 13-year-old Carol Spinks from Southeast was sent by an older sister to buy groceries at a 7-Eleven located a half-mile away from her home, just across the border in Maryland. On her way home from the store, Spinks was abducted; her body was found six days later at 2:46 pm behind St. Elizabeths Hospital on a grassy embankment next to the northbound lanes of I-295, about 1,500 feet south of Suitland Parkway. Examination revealed she had been both physically and sexually assaulted and strangled, was dressed but missing her shoes, and had only been killed a few days previously.
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| On July 8, 1971, Darlenia Johnson, 16, from Congress Heights was abducted while en route to her summer job at Oxon Hill Recreation Center. One witness reported having seen Johnson in an old black car, driven by an African-American male, shortly after her abduction. Eleven days later, her body was located only 15 feet (5.5 meters) from where Spinks had been found even though police had been notified of the location of the corpse nearly a week earlier by an anonymous caller who had details only her killer could have known. By that time, Johnson's body (again dressed but without her shoes) was far too decomposed to determine the cause of death or if she had been sexually assaulted, but law enforcement was able to find evidence of strangulation.
| | A proper motive has never been discerned about the Freeway Phantom's killings, though it should be noted that all of his victims were underage (except one) African-American girls, so it could be theorized that he was a pedophile as well as racist towards African-Americans. Though this is mererly a theory and has no basis in fact. |
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| On July 27, 1971, 10-year-old Brenda Crockett from Northwest failed to return home after having been sent to the store by her mother. About two hours later (around 9:20 pm) the Crocketts' phone rang and was answered by her 7-year-old sister, who had waited at home while her family searched the neighborhood. Crockett was on the other line, crying. "A white man picked me up, and I'm heading home in a cab," Crockett told her sister, adding that she believed she was in Virginia before abruptly saying, "Bye" and hanging up.
| | The only clue that the authorities ever got from the killer was a note found in the coat pocket of Brenda Woodward, the Phantom's fifth victim. |
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| A short time later, the phone rang again and was this time answered by the stepfather of Crockett. It was Crockett again, and she merely repeated what she'd said in the last telephone call, adding "Did my mother see me?" and indicating she was alone in a house with a white male. Her stepfather asked her to have the man come to the phone. Heavy footsteps were heard in the background and Crockett said "I'll see you" and hung up.
| | It read:<br />''This is tantamount to my insensititivity to people especially women. I will admit the others when you catch me if you can! Free-way Phantom'' |
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| Authorities quickly concluded that Crockett likely called her home at the behest of the killer, who fed her inaccurate information in order to buy the necessary time to perpetrate the crime, and to hamper the investigation. At 5:50 am the next day, a hitchhiker discovered Crockett's shoeless body in a conspicuous location on U.S. Route 50, near the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Prince George's County, Maryland. She had been raped and strangled, and a scarf was knotted around her neck.
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| 12-year-old Nenomoshia Yates was walking home around 7:00 pm from a Safeway store in Northeast on October 1, 1971 when she was kidnapped, raped, and strangled. Her body was found within three hours of her abduction, just off the shoulder of Pennsylvania Avenue in Prince George's County, Maryland. As with the other cases, her shoes were missing and unidentified green fibers would also be found on her clothing. A witness apparently saw her getting into a blue Volkswagen, and although investigated, the lead led nowhere.
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| It was after this murder that the "Freeway Phantom" moniker was first used in a Daily News article describing the murders. | |
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| After having dinner with a high school classmate on November 15, 1971, Brenda Woodard, 18, from Baltimore boarded a city bus around 11:30 pm to return to her Maryland Avenue home. Approximately six hours later, a police officer discovered her body, which had been stabbed multiple times and strangled, in a grassy area near Prince George's County Hospital, along an access ramp to Route 202 from the Baltimore–Washington Parkway. Unlike the other victims, she was still wearing her shoes, and a coat had been placed over her chest. One of its pockets contained a note from the killer: ''This is tantamount to my insensititivity to people, especially women. I will admit the others when you catch me if you can! - Free-way Phantom.''
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| Based on handwriting samples, authorities surmised that the note, written on paper cut from the victim's school notebook, had been dictated to and handwritten by Woodard. They also speculated that, given the absence of indications of duress in the writing, apart from evidence of dysgraphia, she may have known her kidnapper.
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| The Phantom's final victim was claimed almost a year later, on September 5, 1972. A 17-year-old Ballou High School senior, Diane Williams cooked dinner for her family and then visited her boyfriend's house. She was last seen boarding a bus at 11:20 pm near his house. A few hours later, her strangled body was discovered dumped alongside I-295, just south of the District line. As with other victims, her shoes were missing, but no signs of sexual assault were found although traces of semen (assumed to be from the boyfriend) were found.
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| | Following the murder of his sixth victim, Diane Williams, on September 5, 1972, no more murders attributed to the Freeway Phantom ever took place again. To date, the Freeway Phantom has never been apprehended and his identity remains a mystery. |
| [[Category:Serial Killer]] | | [[Category:Serial Killer]] |
| [[Category:Faceless Villains]] | | [[Category:Faceless Villains]] |
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| [[Category:Misogynists]] | | [[Category:Misogynists]] |
| [[Category:Emotionless Villains]] | | [[Category:Emotionless Villains]] |
| [[Category:Karma Houdini]]
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| [[Category:Xenophobes]]
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| [[Category:Sadists]]
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| [[Category:Presumed Deceased]]
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| [[Category:United States of America]]
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| [[Category:Modern Villains]]
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| [[Category:Cowards]]
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