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- [00:02]
Vanessa Richardson
We have an exciting update. Mind of a Serial Killer is now Killer minds. Expanding beyond serial killers to cover cult leaders, crimes of passion, spree killers, and more.
- [00:15]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
Nothing else is changing. Same expert analysis, same deep storytelling now twice a week.
- [00:22]
Vanessa Richardson
New episodes drop every Monday and Thursday right here. No need to do anything. Just stay tuned now. Enjoy the episode. This is Crime House. Most of the time, urban legends are harmless fun. Like the man with a hook for a hand who attacks young couples kissing in a car. Or the evil spirit of Bloody Mary who appears in a mirror after you chant her name three times with the lights off. Maybe even the goat monster that kills livestock by sucking out their blood. But these are just cautionary tales reminding us that if we step out of line, trouble isn't far behind. And deep down, we aren't scared. Not really, because we know these are nothing more than just stories. But every once in a while, what sounds like an urban legend is actually real life. Like the story of the Gorilla man, also known as the Gorilla Killer. But don't let the nickname fool you, because he was no circus sideshow. He was the hulking serial killer, Earl Leonard Nelson. He could appear anywhere, literally killing in multiple states and countries. And his victims never saw him coming. The human mind is fascinating. It controls how we think, how we feel, how we love, and how we hate. And sometimes the mind drives us to do something truly unspeakable. This is Killer Minds, formerly known as Mind of a Serial Killer. A Crime House original. Every Monday and Thursday, we'll be taking deep dives into the minds of history's most notorious serial killers and murderers. The show is still the same, the name just changed. And if you're interested in more true crime stories from this week in history, check out Crime House the show Every episode covers multiple cases unified by the same theme. So every week you get something a little different. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing and following Killer Minds. Wherever you get your podcasts, your feedback truly matters. And to enhance your Killer Minds listening experience, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad free. And instead of having to wait for each episode of a two part series, you'll get access to both at once, plus exciting Crime House bonus content. I'm Vanessa Richardson.
- [03:23]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
And I'm Dr. Tristan Ingalls. As Vanessa takes you through our subject stories, I'll be helping her dive into these killers minds as we try to understand how someone can do such horrible.
- [03:34]
Vanessa Richardson
Things before we get into the story, you should know it contains descriptions of murder and sexual assault. This is our second and final episode on Earl Leonard Nelson, whose nicknames include the Gorilla man, the Gorilla Killer and the Dark Strangler. For over a year in the 1920s, Earl wandered through the US and Canada, leaving a trail of over 20 strangled victims in his wake. Last episode we discussed Earl Leonard Nelson's early life, his infamous killing spree, and the mistake that alerted the police to his activities. Today we'll follow the frantic search to find Earl, the drastic measures he took to avoid justice and and his ultimate downfall.
- [04:22]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
And along the way, I'll be talking about things like Earl's bizarre reaction to being caught, his attempts to charm his way out of trouble, and his refusal to confront the reality of his crimes.
- [04:33]
Vanessa Richardson
And as always, we'll be asking the question, what makes a killer?
- [04:43]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
What is Dax, are you tracking all.
- [04:46]
Kristen
Our cars on Carvana Value Tracker on all our devices? Yes, Kristen, yes I am.
- [04:51]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
Well, I've been looking for my phone for.
- [04:52]
Kristen
In Dax's domain we see all. So we always know what our cars are worth.
- [04:57]
Vanessa Richardson
All of them?
- [04:58]
Kristen
All of them. Value surge trucks up 3.9%.
- [05:02]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
That's a great offer.
- [05:03]
Kristen
I know. Sell.
- [05:05]
Vanessa Richardson
Sell.
- [05:07]
Kristen
Track your car's value with Carvana Value Tracker today. If you have health insurance, you might be able to see a personal dietitian for $0 out of pocket. Nourish connects you with a dietitian that fits your needs, covered by your ins. Nourish accepts hundreds of insurance plans and 94% of patients pay $0 out of pocket. Meet with your dietitian online and message them anytime through the Nourish app. With hundreds of five star reviews from real patients, you know you're in good hands. Find your dietitian@usenourish.com that's usenourish.com In June.
- [05:44]
Vanessa Richardson
1927, 30 year old Earl Leonard Nelson made his way to Winnipeg in the Canadian province of Manitob. Over the past 17 months or so, Earl had murdered over 20 victims, mostly older women who ran boarding houses. Although the authorities didn't know who Earl was yet, his murder spree had become publicized in the United States. So Earl decided to head for Canada and presumably lie low. But Earl's compulsion to kill was unstoppable. On June 8, 1927, he deviated from his usual M.O. and murdered a 14 year old girl named Lola Cowan. And two days later, he killed 23 year old Emily Patterson. Earl knew it would only be a matter of time until the authorities Realized the dark strangler was in town to throw them off his scent. He bought some new clothes and went for a shave and a haircut. But Earl wasn't careful enough. The barber noticed blood and scratches on his scalp. After Earl left, the barber called the police. And by the end of that night, they realized what Earl had done.
- [07:02]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
When it comes to serial sexual killers, there are two types of individuals who commit these murders. There are those that are highly organized. They do it in a planned fashion where they are very aware of their crimes and the forensic evidence, and they leave their crime scenes with as little physical evidence as possible. And then there are those who are more spontaneous, they're less organized, and because of their psychopathology, they have an even more difficult time controlling their impulses. I think on the surface, Earl could seem like he's the organized type because of the disguises he's used in the planning that went into his actions. But the reality is he was nearly caught the first time. With Mary Summers, he is choosing locations where he could be caught at any given moment by other residents or the husbands, even of the victims. He does not take care of the forensic evidence at the crime scene, and he has significant deficits controlling his impulses. If this was not the 1900s, he would have been caught almost immediately because of this. With that said, I think that this event at the barber was a result of the fact that he truly wasn't detail oriented at all. And he lacks the awareness to even consider the risks of going to the barber to begin with.
- [08:23]
Vanessa Richardson
Well, the blood on his scalp wasn't the only thing Earl left behind. That same evening of June 10th, Emily Patterson's husband, William came home and found her body. Investigators rushed to their home, and as they searched the crime scene, they realized one of William's suits was missing. It was clear the killer had taken it because he'd left his own clothes on the floor. There was even a piece of newspaper paper in one of the pockets advertising local rooms to rent.
- [08:53]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
And this is exactly what I mean. This is not a detail oriented killer. This is someone who is not at all organized, but rather acting on impulse.
- [09:02]
Vanessa Richardson
Which meant for the first time, the authorities had a real lead to chase down. But Earl was already long gone by the time the Winnipeg police picked up his trail. He was 350 miles away in Regina, in the province of Saskatchewan. On the afternoon of June 11, while police in Winnipeg were investigating the Emily Patterson murder scene, Earl was renting a room from a woman named Mary Rowe. Mary didn't seem to know about The Dark Strangler. But even so, she wasn't sure about letting this large, hulking man into her home. Especially because she had a nine year old daughter. However, Earl had charmed his way into a lot of boarding houses. By now he had his act down pat. He came to the doorstep dressed nicely in a suit, maybe with a Bible tucked under his arm. And just like so many others, Mary was charmed by Earl's unassuming demeanor. She decided to rent him a tiny furnished single bedroom near the back. The next morning, another one of mary rose boarders, 23 year old Grace Nelson, was in her nightgown reading in bed. All of a sudden, she looked up to see Earl staring at her from the doorway. Startled, Grace shot up in bed and yelled at him to leave. Earl was taken aback. He muttered an apology before scurrying down the hallway. For maybe the first time, he backed down from an attack.
- [10:37]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
Yeah, let's talk about this decision. The most obvious to me is his fear of getting caught in the past. He's only killed when he was ready to disappear without a trace. And he might not be ready to do that. He's on the run essentially at this point. But more importantly, he doesn't have the element of surprise here. He also did not have the control in this situation. In all of his cases, he's been able to get his victim's defenses down by how he presented himself. And this allowed him the element of surprise. He was able to strangle these women before they could realize that he was a threat, let alone call out for help. So here he is encountering a woman who is not immediately trusting of him simply because he's living in the same boarding house. I think her reaction to him surprised him more than anything.
- [11:31]
Vanessa Richardson
After his encounter with Grace, Earl shifted his focus elsewhere. Later that day, his new landlady, Mary, was playing in the garden with her daughter Jessie. Earl came outside and they chatted briefly until Mary caught Earl's gaze wandering to her daughter. Unsettled, she cut off the conversation and took Jesse back inside. But Earl had already spotted his next victim. That afternoon, Mary was doing some house chores when she noticed that Jesse was missing. At first she thought her daughter snuck back into the garden to keep playing. But Jessie was nowhere to be found. Mary threw on her shoes and ran around the neighborhood desperately searching for her daughter. She made her way to a nearby park where Jessie liked to go. And that's where she saw her daughter strolling along with her new border. Earl said he was bringing her back home, but Mary wasn't taking any chances, she snatched Jessie away and brought her back to the house herself. When Mary questioned Jesse about why she ran off with him, Jesse said Earl was nice to her and bought her an ice cream soda. But Mary wasn't buying it. She told Jesse she was never to go anywhere with a stranger again.
- [12:54]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
Aside from Earl knowing that children are more vulnerable, there might be another reason why he is suddenly targeting younger girls. He's new in this country. It's new to him, and he knows the police are after him. He's already made attempts to change up his appearance as a result. So he's been trying to throw off the police and throw off anyone possibly identifying him. If he cannot control his urge to kill until he feels confident he is safe from being identified, then changing who he kills would be another way in his mind to throw off the police while also satisfying his compulsion. Though we still continue to see that he is driven by impulse rather than details. Because if he was paying attention to detail, he would have noticed that Mary saw the way that he was looking at Jesse on that occasion and intervened because it made her uncomfortable. If he was paying attention to detail, he would realize that she would also then be paying close attention to him and her daughter going forward. And he clearly did not consider this. Or if he did, his impulsivity is overriding his judgment.
- [14:03]
Vanessa Richardson
Does it seem like Earl was planning to hurt Jesse here? Or if he wasn't, what could his motivations have been?
- [14:10]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
I think, at the very least, he was starting to groom Jesse by bribing her for her trust. At the worst, he planned to do much more that same day. But I don't think that she was at any real danger at the time. Because he wouldn't have done it outside of the boarding home? I don't think so, since that is usually how his method is. But even when he had attacked Lola, he lured her back to his room first. So this is the pattern he has. He enjoys the act of gaining their trust first, and he needs a controlled environment. If Mary hadn't intervened when she did, and he got home with Jesse before Mary even realized that she was gone, I think it's highly likely that he would have impulsively done something simply because he had the opportunity.
- [14:57]
Vanessa Richardson
If Earl had decided to hurt Jesse, the authorities may have found him sooner. Instead, while Earl was spending a relatively leisurely weekend in Regina, the police in Winnipeg were still trying to track him down. Earlier that morning on June 12, the investigators back in Winnipeg were focused on the newspaper Earl had left behind. It was full of ads for rooms to rent. And they quickly located the boarding house in Winnipeg where he'd stayed before making his way to Regina. The Winnipeg police asked the house's owner, Catherine Hill, if any of her boarders had been acting suspiciously. She said no. But later that day, Catherine realized she hadn't seen Earl in a couple days. Curious, she took another look in Earl's room. She'd checked on it a few days earlier while Earl was still in town. Back then, she'd noticed a bad smell emanating from it. Nothing else had seemed out of the ordinary at the time, though. But now the smell was even worse. Catherine got the feeling that something was terribly wrong. So she called the police and asked them to come back. They looked around Earl's room and found the dead body of 14 year old Lola Cowan under the bed. The discovery was shocking and tragic, but it was also the last piece of the puzzle the authorities needed to catch her killer. And it wouldn't be long before they knew Earl Leonard Nelson was the culprit.
- [16:39]
Dax
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- [17:10]
Kristen
Have health insurance, you might be able to see a personal dietitian for $0. Out of pocket. Nourish connects you with a dietitian that fits your needs, covered by your insurance. Nourish accepts hundreds of insurance plans and 94% of patients pay $0 out of pocket. Meet with your dietitian online and message them anytime through the Nourish app. With hundreds of five star reviews from real patients, you know you're in good hands. Find your dietitian@usenourish.com that's usenourish.com Following a.
- [17:42]
Vanessa Richardson
Frantic phone call from Catherine Hill on June 12, 1927, police rushed back to her boarding house in Winnip peg. After identifying 14 year old Lola Cowan's body, officers realized she was killed in the same manner as Emily Patterson, who had been murdered two days earlier. Earl had left some clothes behind at the Patterson crime scene. Katherine Hill was able to confirm that, yes, the clothes belonged to Earl, who she knew as Mr. Wood Coats finally, the pieces were falling into place. Earl's pattern of discarding and buying thrift store clothing, how he killed his victims, and the location of his crimes. It all led police to realize they weren't dealing with a local menace. This was the work of the Dark Strangler. By that evening, a citywide announcement was made across Winnipeg for everyone to be on the lookout for the mysterious Mr. Woodcotes. It wasn't long before reporters and regular citizens alike swarmed Catherine Hill's boarding house. One reporter from the Winnipeg Tribune overheard two women chatting about the killer. They called him the Gorilla man due to his large stature and the fact that he strangled his victims with his bare hands.
- [19:06]
Dr. Tristan Ingalls
Let's talk about the media giving serial killers nicknames. The reason this happens is because they don't have a confirmed identity yet, just descriptions, sketches, or even aliases. So they need to have an identifier to refer to them to when they're reporting on the case. The name they settle on is usually a variation of known characteristics, often the location or method or something related to identifiable features, like Gorilla man being the one for Earl or one of them, given he's got Gorilla Killer and Dark Strangler. The Gorilla man came about, like you said, because he was described to police as being a large, stocky man who had long arms and large hands. And the unfortunate reality is that these nicknames, although intended to be identifiable for reporting purposes, actually serve to sensationalize them even more, which is a phenomenon that we often see when it comes to the news. It attracts more attention and that sells more newspapers or gets more advertisements. And once their identity is confirmed, people tend to continue calling them by their nickname because at.