Alphabet murders

The ‘Alphabet Murders’, also known as the ‘Double Initial Murders’, occurred in Rochester, New York, between November 1971 and November 1973. The victims were three young girls: Carmen Colon, Wanda Walkowicz and Michelle Maenza.

The press dubbed the killings the ‘Double Initial Murders’ or ‘Alphabet Murders’ because, in each case, the girl’s first and last name – as well as the location where the killer left her body – began with the same letter of the Alphabet: i.e. Carmen Colon in Churchville; Wanda Walkowicz in Webster; and Michelle Maenza in the town of Macedon.

The public and press soon noted that the Rochester murders were eerily similar to the plot of a 1935 Agatha Christie novel, The A.B.C. Murders. In the novel, a Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, has to solve a series of murders. The killer challenges Poirot to use his detective skills to prevent the crimes and sends typed letters, signed ‘A.B.C.’, indicating the date and location of each murder. 

Alice Ascher was the first of the fictional victims.  She was a tobacconist,  killed in her shop in Andover. The killer’s next victim was a waitress, Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Barnard, and she died in Bexhill. The third victim was Sir Carmichael Clarke, a wealthy Churston man. The killings proceeded alphabetically, and in each case, the killer left an ABC railway guide beside the body.

 The police arrested Alexander Bonaparte Cust (A.B.C), who had incriminating evidence in his possession. Even though he cannot remember committing the crimes or writing the letters to Poirot, Cust believes he must be the killer. Poirot, on the other hand, doubts Cust’s guilt and eventually establishes his innocence by unmasking the actual killer.

The principal differences between the Rochester murders and those in the Christie novel are:-

• The fictional killer warns Hercule Poirot of the crimes and challenges him to prevent them. 

• Christie’s murders proceed alphabetically, while the Alphabet killer’s victims have names beginning with the third, thirteenth and twenty-third letters of the alphabet.

• The fictional killer does not abduct his victims. He kills his victims and leaves their bodies where they meet.

Some believe the killer chose Carmen, Wanda and Michelle because their initials are an abbreviation of ‘come with me’. While dramatic, there is no evidence to support this idea.

The police had several suspects. To this day, some law enforcement officers in Rochester believe that Carmen’s uncle, Miguel, was responsible for her murder and that Wanda and Michelle were abducted and murdered by a copycat killer.

The focus on Miguel sidetracked the police investigation. It caused the detectives to see the girls as targets of opportunity, unfortunate victims who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

But, the killer did not select his victims at random. The killer specifically targeted these girls but not for sex. He aimed to show that while the police could prevent murder by diligently using their detective skills, they were wholly incapable of performing this simple task.

Accordingly, he committed two murders to provide the police with the clues they needed to avoid a third. 

The killer scoured every aspect of the girls’ young lives for material he could use, and he used everything from the girls’ initials and ages to their home addresses and the schools they attended.

At the time of the murders, experts warned that police theories involving a copycat killer were misplaced. On 1 December 1973, Dr David Barry, a University of Rochester forensic psychiatrist, said, ‘There aren’t very many people around who would rape and murder a prepubescent girl. That makes it likely it was the same person.’

‘If it is the same person, it may well be someone the police would not ordinarily suspect. It may not be the obvious person [such as a sex offender]’, Barry added.

But, the police refused to follow the clues left by the killer. In December 1973, Detective Lieutenant Anthony Fantigrossi dismissed the idea that the double initials were significant and said, ‘As far as I’m concerned, these things are just coincidence.  I’m not putting any stock in them as having any significant value towards the cause or solving these crimes. The coincidences are not necessarily meaningful. This type of crime is not a planned crime. The killer has a mental problem, and when he gets the sex urge, he moves.’

After almost 50 years, it’s time these crimes were correctly investigated, particularly as the identity of the killer is not – and never has been – in doubt.