6 Serial Killers Operated In London, Ontario At The Same Time

Ok, this isn’t one of them…

I was just as surprised as you were when I found out that London, Ontario, of all places in the world, was at one time in history a breeding ground for serial killers. When I think of the L-O I think about Western Homecoming, quaint evenings in Wortley Village, and spending time in Vic Park for Sunfest, but it never occurred to me that a single serial killer, much less an entire rogues gallery of them, were also frequenting Richmond Row and Masonville Mall at one point in history.

This revelation comes to us via UWO professor Dr. Michael Arntfield and PhD candidate Lee Mellor, who plan to publish the book “Murder City: A Social History of the World Capital of Serial Homicide.” This dramatic bit of literature will outline the lives of 3 convicted serial killers that the public has known about for some time, with information on what the authors believe to be 3 more killers who were only recently linked to The Forrest City from 1960 to 1985, the same time as the others. This means that there were 6 serial killers operating in the same city, at the same time, which is more than any city in the world, including Los Angeles and New York City.

The London Police investigated 32 homicides involving grotesque mutilation in that 25 year period, but only 13 of those were attributed to the 3 known killers. The other 19, however, have been grouped by similarity and attributed to 3 distinct, yet unconvicted, serial killers.

We’ll take a look at the 3 known serial killers below, and if you want to find out more about the last 3, you’ll just have to buy the book!

Gerald Thomas Archer – Chambermaid Murders

Born in London, Ontario in 1932, Gerald was an active killer from 1969 to 1971, and committed a string of lesser crimes, including robbery an drug possession, dating back to the 50s.

He was only actually convicted of one murder, for which he served time and was paroled in 1985, but it wasn’t until he died in 1995 that his wife came forward and implicated him for all of the “Chambermaid Murder” cases. This series of killings got their nickname, because they often involve hotels or older women who worked in hotels.

•  January 31, 1969  -  Jane Woolley (62).   Victim stabbed and beaten.  Last seen in hotel (where she worked) and found in an apartment on York St. in London.  Project Angel, a cold case initiative by law enforcement for unsolved cases in the London, Ontario area, announced solved this case in 2000.
• September 1970  – Edith Authier (57).  Stabbed and beaten.  Found in her house in Merlin, Ontario, near Chatham, a case also solved by Project Angel.
•  January 23, 1971  – Belva Russell (57).  Partially nude body found on dining room floor of her Chatham apartment. Victim was a chambermaid at a Chatham hotel.  Gerald was convicted of this crime in June 1971 and sentenced to life in prison.

Russell Johnson - The Bedroom Strangler

Born in 1947, Russell Johnson is known as Ontario’s worst serial killers of all time, and earned the name “Bedroom Strangler,” due to his habit of scaling apartment buildings, climbing from balcony to balcony, to find sleeping women in their bedrooms. It is said that he scaled buildings up to 15 stories high, a testament to both his determination and insanity… That and he was also known to sexually assault his female victims both before and after killing them.

He began his criminal career as a rapist in 1969, but really found his stride with murder. Russell was so good at killing, that his first 4 kills were completely missed by the police, and had been reported as death by natural cause. Had he not later admitted to committing these crimes in particular, we would not have known about them to this day. After these first 4 murders, he continued his killing spree in both London an Guelph, Ontario between 1973 and 1977, racking up 7 that we know of for sure, and another 10 he has always been suspected of, but never admitted to.

Upon conviction in 1978, he was sentenced to a maximum security forensic mental health facility in Penetanguishene, Ont., where he remains to this day, while acting seeking transfer to a more comfortable institution.

• October 1973 - Mary Hicks – London
• November 1973 - Alice Ralston – Guelph
• March 1974 - Eleanor Hartwick – London
• August 1974 - Doris Brown – Guelph
• December 1974 - Diane Beitz – Guelph
• April 1977 - Luella George – London
• July 1977 - Donna Veldboom – London

Christian Magee – Mad Slasher or Porn Man

Born in Strathroy, Ontario, just outside of London, in 1948, Christian “Chris” Magee began his criminal career at the ripe old age of 12, by raping a 10 year old girl, and it was all downhill from there.

Chris earned the name “Mad Slasher” thanks to his wild features and preference for slitting the throats of his victims with a knife, and the monicker “Porn Man,” because he was a really, really perverse individual. An example of his perversion came at a moment in time when the police were investigating him that they raided his home (too soon some have noted), where they made a grotesque discovery in his basement. Stored in a chest was a collection of several samples of human feces collected in bags, kept along with pictures of naked children. This evidence was not enough to link him at the time to any suspected sexual assaults or murders, and so the police let him go.

Most of his offenses were sexually driven, and a number of his rape/assault charges did not end in murder, which has led many to question his eventual plea for insanity in 1997. One of his earlier and most violent cases did, however, involve the butchering of 21 year old Priscilla Merle, the gruesome details of which you can read below.

Magee was sent to a maximum security forensic mental health facility in Penetanguishene, On, but has made a number of attempts to be transferred to a lower security facility, because he’s fat an diabetic… strangely he hasn’t received much sympathy from the justice system thus far.

• March 4, 1972 – Priscilla Merle, 21, of London, was last seen getting into a car outside her sister’s home in London on March 4. Her left arm was found two weeks later in Kettle Creek, north of Port Stanley. Her upper torso was found beside a Kettle Creek marina a month later. For the next several months, police continued to recover pieces of her body in the area.
• March 2, 1974 – A 19-year-old woman left a Strathroy pizza restaurant at about 9pm, crossing railroad tracks on her way home. Magee followed, grabbed her and fatally slashed her throat with a jackknife. He then undid her pants, fondled her and took some money from her. He washed the knife, went home and dried it as his wife apparently watched.
• June 20, 1975 – Magee left his Strathroy house in the evening in search of a woman he noticed headed towards a nearby park. He found her, tackled her and told her he wanted sex. They struggled until he choked her. She then told him she would comply and he began to undo her zipper, but it broke. He then choked her unconscious, fondled her vagina and left. She survived.
• Oct. 20, 1975 – Magee passed the house of a 19-year-old woman he knew in Mount Brydges. She invited him in. He grabbed her, forcing her to the floor. He took off her pants and began to have sex but stopped, he said, out of deep affection for her. She put her pants back on before he strangled her with a black bootlace and fatally stabbed her in the throat. Her body was found at about 5pm, lying on the kitchen floor.
• Nov. 3, 1975 – Magee picked up a 14-year-old girl hitchhiking in the London area. He drove her to a deserted area where he ordered her to disrobe. When she did not act quickly enough, he tore her clothes off. She kicked and screamed. He struck her in the face and had sex with her, lacerating her vagina. He then strangled her unconscious and hit her with a glass bottle, fracturing her skull. She was found naked and semi-conscious on a road later that evening. She ultimately identified Magee.
• June 15, 1976 – Magee picked up a 15-year-old girl returning to her parents’ cottage near Strathroy. He had sex with her. He then strangled her, stabbed her in the throat and chest, and slashed her, leaving a 20-centimetre laceration above her vagina. Her dead body was found in bikini briefs at about 2:15 pm near an old home. He was arrested the next day.