Arthur Shawcross Paroled, Kills Again

In 1972, Arthur Shawcross from Watertown, New York, raped and murdered 10-year-old Jack Owen Blake and 8-year-old Karen Ann Hill, and a court sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Despite his violent record, officials paroled him in 1987 after concluding that he was no longer dangerous, and he eventually settled in Rochester, New York.

Just eleven months after his release, Shawcross began killing again, targeting sex workers and vulnerable women. Between 1988 and 1989, he murdered 12 women before police arrested him, and in 1990 a jury convicted him of multiple counts of second-degree murder, leading to a life sentence without parole.

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