Post by marionumber1 on Dec 28, 2020 10:44:50 GMT -6
Just wanted to copy some of my posts from previous threads mentioning alternate suspects other than Buono and Bianchi.
Rodney Alcala and Sam Shamshak (zodiackillerhoax1986.freeforums.net/post/3435/thread)
Peter Howard Denton - an alternate Boston Strangler suspect, as mentioned in Susan Kelly's book The Boston Stranglers:
There are probably others, both known and unknown, who would similarly make good alternative suspects.
Rodney Alcala and Sam Shamshak (zodiackillerhoax1986.freeforums.net/post/3435/thread)
Since you mention it, there's actually a good chance that Alcala could be linked to the Hillside Strangler killings in some way. Initially there were 13 women on the Hillside Strangler victim list, since they had all been murdered and posed in roughly the same manner. Then a Massachusetts prison escapee named George Shamshak confessed to being part of just two of the murders, of Jill Barcomb and Kathleen Robinson, indicating that (www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/04/01/2-la-arrests-cast-doubt-on-single-strangler-theory/413f9c4a-d8ae-44de-b3be-ba74bac7fcd9/) if true "it means police were wrong in linking the 13 deaths to a single killer or murder team".
He implicated a handyman friend of his named Peter Mark Jones as the actual killer. Police arrested Jones but released him due to lack of evidence. However, the LAPD continued to take Shamshak's confessions seriously because he purportedly knew unpublicized details of the crimes (dailyiowan.lib.uiowa.edu/DI/1978/di1978-04-13.pdf#page=3):
Shamshak claimed to have made a tape recording of Kathleen Robinson's murder, and said that he was just the chauffeur that drove around three people -- presumably Peter Mark Jones (?), another man, and a woman who later became a victim of the group -- who were actually committing the murders (www.newspapers.com/clip/51715548/george-shamshak-tapes/):
p.30-31 of Michael Newton's Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes (web.archive.org/web/20200520021626/https://img.fireden.net/tg/image/1459/19/1459193525585.pdf) talks about how the Barcomb and Robinson cases developed afterwards. Although neither Shamshak nor Jones was charged, the LAPD still removed those two murders from the "list of presumed series victims". This was likely because Bianchi's confession happened to exclude those two murders, leaving both cases unsolved. In 1995, Jones tried to obtain records on the cases, only to be told they were "destroyed in an earthquake". And 8 years later, Rodney Alcala was linked to Barcomb's murder by DNA evidence. Though strangely enough, Barcomb was friends with official Bianchi and Buono victim Judith Miller who had been killed 10 days earlier on Halloween.
Not too long ago, Peter Mark Jones reviewed a Hillside Strangler book on Google Books (books.google.com/books?id=DsMjwZgPuOMC&sitesec=reviews), claiming that George Shamshak had inserted his (Jones') name in place of his brother Sam Shamshak's name:
Sam Shamshak was a Hollywood actor prominent enough to have an IMDB page (www.imdb.com/name/nm0787910/), and to have appeared in some well-known shows like NYPD Blue, Seinfeld, and Ghost Whisperer. A news article confirms that George did have a brother named Sam who was an actor (www.newspapers.com/clip/51767723/the-tampa-times/):
Is it possible that George Shamshak's story was mostly accurate, and that Rodney Alcala and Sam Shamshak were working together to murder women in Los Angeles while brother George drove them around? Alcala's connections were in the Hollywood scene and Sam Shamshak was part of that to some degree also.
One final note: that Washington Post article I linked above states that Barcomb "came to Hoolywood after a New York conviction for prostitution", which means that, just like her killer Alcala (and possibly also Sam Shamshak if the rumor of him killing women in New York is true), she went between New York and Southern California.
He implicated a handyman friend of his named Peter Mark Jones as the actual killer. Police arrested Jones but released him due to lack of evidence. However, the LAPD continued to take Shamshak's confessions seriously because he purportedly knew unpublicized details of the crimes (dailyiowan.lib.uiowa.edu/DI/1978/di1978-04-13.pdf#page=3):
Shamshak last week was termed by Gates a "prime suspect" in the sex slayings because he had information that logically could only be known by a participant or detectives investigating the murders of young girls and women going back to last September.
Shamshak claimed to have made a tape recording of Kathleen Robinson's murder, and said that he was just the chauffeur that drove around three people -- presumably Peter Mark Jones (?), another man, and a woman who later became a victim of the group -- who were actually committing the murders (www.newspapers.com/clip/51715548/george-shamshak-tapes/):
A Massachusetts prison escapee says he has a tape recording made during the murder of Kathleen Robinson, one of the 13 Hillside Strangler victims, a newspaper reported Thursday.
The Los Angeles Herald Examiner reported that George Shamshak told the paper in a phone call from prison Saturday that the tape was made in a van while Miss Robinson, 17, was being strangled last Nov. 16. He wanted to sell the tape to the newspaper.
Shamshak said he possesses five tapes relating to the murders and that their contents show three persons were involved in the slayings one of them a woman who later became a strangler victim herself, the paper said. Shamshak's attorney, Henry Wynn, denied that his client had any tapes, however.
SHAMSHAK SAID the tapes would clear him of any involvement in the murders. "I have never killed anyone in my life," he is quoted as saying. "I just happened to be a willing dupe a pawn. Somebody held something over my head."
Shamshak, who was serving a prison term for armed robbery in Massachusetts when he escaped last fall has been questioned by Los Angeles police in at least two of the strangler murders. Police say he had special knowledge in the cases.
The convict said he offered the tapes to police but "the police didn't want to offer me the deal I wanted. I wanted immunity, but they want to prosecute me now, from what I understand, for two murders."
The paper said negotiations with Shamshak bogged down when prison officials refused to permit any more calls to Shamshak and the newspaper's editor, James G. Bellows, decided "not to get into checkbook journalism."
The Los Angeles Herald Examiner reported that George Shamshak told the paper in a phone call from prison Saturday that the tape was made in a van while Miss Robinson, 17, was being strangled last Nov. 16. He wanted to sell the tape to the newspaper.
Shamshak said he possesses five tapes relating to the murders and that their contents show three persons were involved in the slayings one of them a woman who later became a strangler victim herself, the paper said. Shamshak's attorney, Henry Wynn, denied that his client had any tapes, however.
SHAMSHAK SAID the tapes would clear him of any involvement in the murders. "I have never killed anyone in my life," he is quoted as saying. "I just happened to be a willing dupe a pawn. Somebody held something over my head."
Shamshak, who was serving a prison term for armed robbery in Massachusetts when he escaped last fall has been questioned by Los Angeles police in at least two of the strangler murders. Police say he had special knowledge in the cases.
The convict said he offered the tapes to police but "the police didn't want to offer me the deal I wanted. I wanted immunity, but they want to prosecute me now, from what I understand, for two murders."
The paper said negotiations with Shamshak bogged down when prison officials refused to permit any more calls to Shamshak and the newspaper's editor, James G. Bellows, decided "not to get into checkbook journalism."
p.30-31 of Michael Newton's Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes (web.archive.org/web/20200520021626/https://img.fireden.net/tg/image/1459/19/1459193525585.pdf) talks about how the Barcomb and Robinson cases developed afterwards. Although neither Shamshak nor Jones was charged, the LAPD still removed those two murders from the "list of presumed series victims". This was likely because Bianchi's confession happened to exclude those two murders, leaving both cases unsolved. In 1995, Jones tried to obtain records on the cases, only to be told they were "destroyed in an earthquake". And 8 years later, Rodney Alcala was linked to Barcomb's murder by DNA evidence. Though strangely enough, Barcomb was friends with official Bianchi and Buono victim Judith Miller who had been killed 10 days earlier on Halloween.
Not too long ago, Peter Mark Jones reviewed a Hillside Strangler book on Google Books (books.google.com/books?id=DsMjwZgPuOMC&sitesec=reviews), claiming that George Shamshak had inserted his (Jones') name in place of his brother Sam Shamshak's name:
The informant, George Shamshak, older brother, Sam Shamshak, lived in the same apartment house as me and was known as women beater who regularly beat his live in girl friend, Myrna, disturbing theother residents who threaten to call the LAPD! I know for a fact Sam picked up prositutes. I told the LAPD this info on day one of my arrest and stated, "If George was killing women with someone in LA, it was most likely his violent older brother, Sam Shamshak!" It was obvious to me George was just substituting my name for his brother's. Years later I learn from Sam Shamshak's closet friend in LA that Sam Shamshak was rumored to have killed women in Boston and New York and that is why he left Boston.
I passed all this information along to the LAPD who NEVER detained Sam Shamshak for questioning!
Peter Mark Jones
I passed all this information along to the LAPD who NEVER detained Sam Shamshak for questioning!
Peter Mark Jones
Sam Shamshak was a Hollywood actor prominent enough to have an IMDB page (www.imdb.com/name/nm0787910/), and to have appeared in some well-known shows like NYPD Blue, Seinfeld, and Ghost Whisperer. A news article confirms that George did have a brother named Sam who was an actor (www.newspapers.com/clip/51767723/the-tampa-times/):
According to Flynn, Jones had been working as a maintenance man at a playhouse in New England where he met Sam Shamshak, a veteran actor and acting instructor in his 40s. The two men. became friends and about a year ago decided to head west in Jones' Ford van. When they arrived in Los Angeles, they wound up by sheer coincidence at the same apartment house. At first, they shared the same $150-a-month bachelor apartment but after about a month, Flynn said, Jones and Shamshak each found jobs and were able to afford separate apartments in the building. Shamshak later took over as manager of the building. Things seemed to be going well for both, he said, until last fall when Shamshak received word that his brother, George, was coming to Los Angeles.
Is it possible that George Shamshak's story was mostly accurate, and that Rodney Alcala and Sam Shamshak were working together to murder women in Los Angeles while brother George drove them around? Alcala's connections were in the Hollywood scene and Sam Shamshak was part of that to some degree also.
One final note: that Washington Post article I linked above states that Barcomb "came to Hoolywood after a New York conviction for prostitution", which means that, just like her killer Alcala (and possibly also Sam Shamshak if the rumor of him killing women in New York is true), she went between New York and Southern California.
Peter Howard Denton - an alternate Boston Strangler suspect, as mentioned in Susan Kelly's book The Boston Stranglers:
Robey continues: “Nothing came of this. Peter immediately vanished . He was next noted to be out in Los Angeles just at the time the Hillside Stranglings started. Interestingly enough, they subsequently got somebody on one of the Ann Arbor killings. And while I don't think this guy confessed to the rest, it was sort of assumed because the modus operandi was so similar that he had committed the rest of them. And as you know they got two people out in L.A. for the Hillside Stranglings. But one wonders.”
There are probably others, both known and unknown, who would similarly make good alternative suspects.
