Joseph Kappen
Joseph William Kappen, also known as The Saturday Night Strangler (30 October 1941 – 17 June 1990), was a Welsh night club bouncer, rapist and Wales's first documented serial killer. He is also notable for his escape from justice, as he was not identified until 12 years after his death.
|
Murders edit
In September 1973, Kappen picked up hitchhikers Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd. He then raped both of them before strangling them to death and dumping their bodies by the side of the road.
In December of the same year, Kappen assaulted Sandra Newton, raped her and strangled her to death with her own skirt, hiding her body under a road culvert. This murder was not linked to the strangler case until a cold case investigation into the murders after Kappen's death, during which DNA evidence linked Newton's murder to the murder of Hughes and Floyd.
On 23 February 1976, Maureen Mulcahy was attacked during the night, raped and strangled. Her murder has never been solved, but Kappen is suspected.
Posthumous identification edit
Kappen died of lung cancer in 1990. When the Saturday Night Strangler case was reopened in 2000, the police ran the killer's DNA through their database and found a 50% match in Paul Kappen, a convicted car thief. Although Paul Kappen was only seven at the time of the murders, he was also known to be the son of Joseph Kappen, who was suspect number #200 in the case. The police attempted to arrest Kappen on suspicion of three counts of rape and three counts of murder, but discovered he had died twelve years ago. The police later exhumed his corpse, and confirmed through DNA analysis that he was indeed the killer of Hughes, Floyd and Newton.
|
The days are gone forever when our enemies could blackmail us with nuclear bombs. This article is a stub and is in need of expansion. You can help Real-Life Villains by expanding it. |