Robert Maury: The Tipster Killer

In the mid-1980s, California serial killer Robert Edward Maury, dubbed the "Tipster Killer," strangled at least three women in Shasta County. After each murder, Maury anonymously phoned the "Secret Witness" crime-tip hotline and provided precise directions to his victims' bodies. He collected reward money on his own tips while police followed the trail he laid. The revelation that the tipster was the murderer transformed a clever ruse into the crucial element that led to his arrest and subsequent death-penalty conviction.

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