Earle Nelson Research Paper

In 1897 May 12th, Earle Nelson was born and he was an American serial killer. Nelson's childhood was a difficult one. His mother and father both died of syphilis before Nelson turned two. He was then raised by his grandmother who was very religious. When Earle reached 10 years old he got hit by a trolley car while riding his bike, he was unconscious for six days and when he woke up his behavior became unpredictable.He also suffered from frequent headaches and memory loss. At age 14 his grandmother died and he then had to live with his aunt,Lillian, and her husband. Earle began his criminal activities early,he was sentenced to two years in San Quentin State Prison in 1915 after breaking into a cabin he believed to be abandoned. He then got committed

His victims were mostly landladies, and he would approach them by wanting to rent a room. He often carried a bible around so that his victims were at ease and once he gained enough of their trust, he would strangle them,kill them, then engage in necrophilia with their corpse. After doing all of that, he then hid the body under the nearest bed and on one occasion he seriously injured a 14 year old girl,Lola Cowen, and slept with the dead corpse under his bed for 3 three nights. By changing his identity and moving to different states quickly, Earle Nelson avoided capture for 18 months. Nelson’s victims locations were in several West Coast cities,throughout the upper Midwest,and finally Canada. Police were slowed down by a number of mistaken arrests. For example, police arrested an Austrian national named Joe Kesesek because he was "acting suspiciously" and wore similar clothes as the killer did. Stephen Nisbet was held in jail for two days after the murder of his wife Mary, who is a victim. Two days after the murder of Isabel Gallegos, another victim, on August 19, 1926, a Russian immigrant named John Slivkoff was arrested but later released. Earle was arrested twice in Canada, which is where his murder spree ended. His first arrest was on June 15,1927 in Wakopa, Manitoba, not long after he killed two women in Canada. Nelson was imprisoned at the local jail after giving