Earle Leonard Nelson, known most famously as the Gorilla Killer or the Dark Strangler, born May 12, 1897. Nelson grew up with his religious fanatic grandmother since the age of two, when both of birth parents had died from Syphilis, an STD that causes long-term complications if not treated correctly. During his childhood Nelson was hit by an oncoming car and had remained unconscious for almost an entire week afterwards and he had showed signs of brain damage once he had awoken. Symptoms that he had experienced included erratic behavior and episode of memory loss. Nelson’s behavior had become significantly worse after a bike accident, which had cost him a severe head injury. By the time Earle Nelson had reached his teenage years, he had become a local regular at brothels and bars of San Francisco’s Barbary Coast. At the age of eighteen, Nelson was arrested and sentenced to two years in San Quentin State Prison for burglary. Around the time that Nelson was released, the United States of America was just entering World War I and he had enlisted into the U.S. Navy, refusing to do anything but to lay on his cot and complain …show more content…
Earle Nelson was arrested in Canada but had escaped jail. Between 1926 and 1927 Nelson had officially killed twenty two different women, maybe even more, and had been made a record for about a decade before it was broken. He had set the record for being the first American serial sex killer of the twentieth century. His capture wasn’t easy due to the reason that he moved around, changed his name, and the police at that point in time were not well educated on the way a serial killer thinks and acts. When Nelson was finally caught and recognized for his crimes, his attorney had tried to get him off for being mentally incapable. The jury had decided in the end to hang Nelson in Winnipeg, on January 13 in the year