Child Sexual Exploitation Ring: 22 arrested, Amanda Spencer found guilty of running child sex ring in Sheffield, Prostitute raped, tortured, crucified in Italy, serial killer. speculation that the murder could have been a ritual killing

– Child Sexual Exploitation Ring: 22 arrested
– Amanda Spencer found guilty of running child sex ring in Sheffield
– Prostitute raped, tortured, crucified in Italy; case mirrors 2013 attack
– Italy: Florence gripped by fear as police hunt serial killer “speculation that the murder could have been a ritual killing”

CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION RING: 22 arrested
By Folkestone Herald   May 07, 2014

POLICE have arrested 22 people in connection with an investigation into child sexual exploitation across the UK.

Officers carried out a series of early morning raids at addresses in Kent, the Midlands and Yorkshire, in an operation focused on an organised criminal network believed to be involved with the sexual exploitation of young girls from the Slovakian Roma community, in Margate, Folkestone, Dover and Gravesend.

Chief Superintendent Alison Roden of Kent Police, who has been co-ordinating the operation, said: ‘We have arrested a number of people across the country as part of an ongoing investigation into child exploitation offences.

‘This is part of an in-depth investigation and today’s operation is a response to reports from the community and intelligence gathered about allegations of child exploitation in Margate, Dover, Folkestone and Gravesend. Arrests have also been made in Leeds and Birmingham.

‘The protection of children and vulnerable young victims is a key priority for Kent Police and our partner agencies….
http://www.folkestoneherald.co.uk/Police/story-21067808-detail/story.html

Amanda Spencer found guilty of running child sex ring in Sheffield
Kashmira Gander Author Biography
Friday 02 May 2014

A woman from Sheffield has been found guilty of running a child sex ring, after she reportedly coaxed “weak and vulnerable” underage girls into prostitution using drugs and alcohol.

23-year-old Amanda Spencer was found guilty of 16 counts relating to child prostitution at Sheffield Crown Court on 1 May.

On Friday, the jury was discharged after failing to reach a verdict on 14 remaining charges, according BBC News.

She was cleared of seven charges including arranging or facilitating child prostitution, intentionally causing or inciting a person to become a prostitute, and one count of trafficking within the UK for sexual exploitation.

Spencer ran the ring between 2006 and 2011, and made girls have sex with men, both at her own flat, and at other homes across South Yorkshire.

During the trial which lasted over two months, Prosecutor Michelle Colborne QC told the court that Spencer supplied the girls with alcohol and drugs and “when [they were] weak, introduced them to a life of prostitution,” according to BBC News.

“She hung around the town centre identifying and befriending vulnerable children.

“She made them feel loved, she gave them a shoulder to cry on, a friend who purported to understand whatever sadness they were experiencing in their lives and in turn lured them into a life of abuse, which she exploited and profited from.”….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/amanda-spencer-found-guilty-of-running-child-sex-ring-in-sheffield-9318958.html

Amanda Spencer trial: ‘Grotesque’ abuse of Sheffield child sex ring victims  6 May 2014
A victim of child sex ring leader Amanda Spencer has described the shocking physical and psychological brutality she used to trap vulnerable girls in a life of prostitution.

Spencer, 23, from Sheffield, has been convicted of 16 charges relating to child prostitution after jurors heard her victims were controlled using drugs, alcohol and violence.

She was just 16 when she began befriending her victims – some as young as 13 – and forcing them to have sex for cash.

One girl, who had been sleeping rough in the city’s Abbeyfield Park, told Sheffield Crown Court she thought Spencer would protect her but was left fearing for her life when she was locked in a room where seven men paid to abuse her….
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-27290220

Prostitute raped, tortured, crucified in Italy; case mirrors 2013 attack
Romanian immigrant Andrea Cristina Zamfir was found dead Monday morning, her wrists taped to an overpass in Florence. Authorities say the 26-year-old’s murder is similar to the near murder of 46-year-old Alle Bartoline, who was found naked and screaming, her wrists taped to the same barrier.

BY Meg Wagner  NEW YORK DAILY NEWS  Wednesday, May 7, 2014

talian police are hunting for a monstrous serial attacker who raped and tortured a prostitute in Florence before “crucifying” her naked body on a bridge.

The brutal killing mirrors another attack on the same overpass last March.

Police found the body of Romanian immigrant Andrea Cristina Zamfir on Monday morning. The 26-year-old had been forced to kneel with her outstretched arms taped to a horizontal barrier under the bridge, Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.

Police said she had been sexually tortured before she was left to die, and bruising showed she struggled throughout the horrific assault, police say. Her clothes and purse were found about a half-mile away….

During the past 10 years, six or seven more prostitutes have been killed in the area, Florence investigator Lorenzo Bucossi told the Daily Beast….
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/prostitute-raped-tortured-crucified-italy-article-1.1783067

Italy: Florence gripped by fear as police hunt serial killer
gbtimes Italy, Milan
Wednesday, May 7, 2014

A mysterious homicide is reviving painful memories in Florence after the body of a prostitute was found under a bridge on Monday. Andrea Cristina Zamfir, 26, a Romanian national, was strapped to a bar, tortured and left to die slowly, her wrists tied in a crucifixion-like pose.

There is “a real possibility that a new serial killer is on a rampage,” ANSA news agency writes, quoting sources close to the investigation. According to the Italian press, six other attacks on women over the past 8 years bear resemblance to this latest incident, but only this one ended in the victim’s death.

There are similarities between the killings in the choice of the victims, who are all drug-addicted prostitutes, and in the area where the crimes took place as well as the use of torture. The proximity of a cemetery is also fueling speculation that the murder could have been a ritual killing….
http://gbtimes.com/world/italy-florence-gripped-fear-police-hunt-serial-killer

Exclusive: Craigslist Killer Miranda Barbour Tells How and Why She Killed

Exclusive: Craigslist Killer Miranda Barbour Tells How and Why She Killed                   
By Matthew Lysiak April 28, 2014

But she has no regrets about Troy LaFerrara, whom she confessed to murdering, or about the 22 other people in at least four other states she claims to have killed. “I felt no regret. None,” she says. “I didn’t hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it.”

Barbour is charged with criminal homicide for the murder of LaFerrara. Last week her attorney filed a motion asking a judge to rule that she did not torture LaFerrara before killing him, in an effort to take the death penalty off the table. She is due back in court on May 30.

She became an international headline after she told a local reporter on Valentine’s Day that she was a serial killer. Since then, the teen mom from North Pole, Alaska, has been a constant source of media speculation. Police don’t seem to take her seriously as a mass murderer, but she has been fielding requests from CNN and other news outlets….

Miranda believes her “darkness” was created by her Uncle Rick, who abused her as a child. “I think he created a monster inside of me. It’s always there.” She doesn’t want to go into details, but the brutalities inflicted on her by her uncle are a matter of public record, crimes described by the trial judge as the most physically extreme case of abuse he had ever seen….

A few months later, Miranda began to complain that her anus and “pee-pee” hurt, but her parents did nothing.

The abuse continued for almost a year, until Ashley told her mother about the “secrets” of Uncle Rick. In 1998, Fernandez was sentenced to 19 years in jail, but was let out after serving nine years and four months. In July 2011, he was charged with possession of child pornography after investigators found hundreds of images on his computer, and sentenced to a 40-year prison term. He is scheduled for release in 2035….

She says she joined a satanic cult at the age of 12: “I kind of slid into it. But they weren’t just into Satan, there were into hating minorities too.” She insists Satanism has been a positive influence in her life and helped her harness that darkness inside of her—most of the time. “I worship a dark entity,” she explains, “but just because it is dark doesn’t mean that it is bad.”

She claims to have committed her first murder when she was 13. It was a man who owed money to her cult’s leader, whom she identifies only as Forest. She says she lured the man into a dark alley with the promise of sex, and Forest jumped out of the shadows and shot him. “Forest shot him in the chest, but he was still alive,” she says. “He put the gun in my hand. He put his finger over my finger and pulled the trigger.”

Miranda claims she became pregnant by a member of the cult that same year. The other cult members did not want her to have the baby, she says, so they tied her to a bed, gave her drugs and performed a gruesome in-house abortion. Before moving from Alaska, she says, she had to endure a brutal gang rape as the “exit fee” for leaving the cult. “There were only two ways out—by death or gang rape. I was pretty beat up.”

She says her killing spree began in Alaska, and it continued in California, Texas and North Carolina. “There is something inside me. It goes off like a switch. I call it Super Miranda. It’s dark. It’s violent. It’s like another person.” Almost all of her victims were men, but there was a woman in Alaska who Miranda heard was prostituting her children. “We drugged her and took her out into the forest,” she says. “We tortured her. We cut her. We burned her a little bit. She denied it all at first—you know, people will say anything when you torture them—but she finally admitted it and promised she wouldn’t do it again. I knew she was lying. These people always lie. We cut her and threw her in a hole in the ice.” ….
http://www.newsweek.com/2014/05/09/exclusive-craigslist-killer-miranda-barbour-tells-how-and-why-she-killed-248670.html

Miranda Barbour’s Sister: My Mom Is to Blame for Her Troubles
By Nicole Weisensee  04/28/2014

There is only one person to blame for accused Craigslist killer – and wannabe serial killer – Miranda Barbour’s lies and violent behavior, her sister told Dr. Phil McGraw in an episode of his show that aired Monday.

“My mom made Miranda the way she is,” Ashley Dean said as their mother, Elizabeth Dean, dissolved into tears. “My mom has been a bad mom.”

Ashley went on to say that their mother was inattentive, had numerous men over that she just met after divorcing their father and even left her to babysit Miranda when she was 6 and Miranda was 3 years old.

“I just want to make it clear that it’s not my sister’s fault,” she said. “She’s not this monster on her own. It’s come from someone else.”

Elizabeth said she took Miranda to many therapists over the years to get her the help she needed.

“I love Miranda,” she said. “I will never turn my back on her. She’s my daughter.”

Barbour, 19, and her husband, Elytte, have been charged with the Nov. 11 murder of Troy LeFerrara, 42, whom they allegedly met via a Craigslist ad and lured to his death. They have both pleaded not guilty.

In February, Miranda told a Pennsylvania newspaper reporter she killed at least 21 other people. While Ashley and their mother believe Miranda killed LeFerrara, they do not believe she killed anyone else….
http://www.people.com/article/miranda-barbour-sister-mother-appear-dr-phil-show

 

Italy’s bishops pass Vatican-backed rule that child molestation does not have to be reported, Harris pleads not guilty to 2011 murder charge (practiced voodoo), Children of serial killer Robert Pickton’s victims will split $4.9M in compensation fund

Italy’s bishops pass Vatican-backed rule that child molestation does not have to be reported
Kashmira Gander Friday 28 March 2014

Italy’s bishops have adopted a policy, with backing from the Vatican, that states they are not obliged to inform police officers if they suspect a child has been molested.

The Italian Bishops’ Conference said the guidelines published on Friday reflected suggestions from the Vatican’s office that handles sex abuse investigations.

Victims have denounced how bishops systematically covered up abuse by moving priests while keeping prosecutors in the dark.

Only in 2010 did the Vatican instruct bishops to report abuse to police — but only where required by law.

Italian guidelines cite a 1985 treaty between the Vatican and Italy stipulating that clergy aren’t obliged to tell magistrates about information obtained through their religious ministry. The guidelines remind bishops, however, they have a ”moral duty“ to contribute to the common good….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/italys-bishops-pass-vaticanbacked-rule-stating-they-do-not-have-to-report-if-a-priest-has-molested-a-child-9222501.html

Harris pleads not guilty to 2011 murder charge
Harris trial in late June could take a week and a half
March 31, 2014

By Steve Fry

LYNDON — A defendant charged with using a garrote to kill an older man in 2011 pleaded not guilty to the murder charge Monday in Osage County District Court.

The trial of James Paul Harris, 29, will start June 23, and is expected to require 11/2 weeks….

A part of the victim’s skull was discovered March 24, 2012, at a house in rural Carbondale in Osage County. Shirley Johnson, who lives with Jeff Harris, the defendant’s father, testified she was searching for mushrooms when she found a “ball” — the top of Gerety’s skull — and took it inside to show Jeff Harris. He called police. Another witness, Topeka police Detective Brian Hill, testified Bobbie Williams, Harris’ girlfriend, told him during questioning that Harris kept the victim’s head nearby so he could talk to it. Harris was into voodoo and practiced it, Hill said Williams told him.
http://cjonline.com/news/2014-03-31/harris-pleads-not-guilty-2011-murder-charge

Children of serial killer Robert Pickton’s victims will split $4.9M in compensation fund
THE CANADIAN PRESS March 18, 2014
VANCOUVER — A man whose mother was the last to be reported missing in connection with serial killer Robert Pickton says $4.9 million in government compensation for the 98 children of women who disappeared provides some recognition for decades of pain.

“It’s been a long battle to get this far,” Troy Boen, 28, said Tuesday after the federal, B.C. and Vancouver governments announced the fund that will provide $50,000 for each of the children of 67 missing and murdered women, mostly Pickton’s victims.

Boen’s mother, Yvonne Marie Boen, went missing on March 16, 2001, soon after they’d planned to spend spring break together. He called her back repeatedly, but there was no answer.

A 2012 report from a public inquiry that outlined years of police failures made 63 recommendations, including compensating the offspring of the women who’d disappeared up to 2002, when Pickton was arrested.

Boen’s DNA was later found on Pickton’s pig farm in Port Coquitlam, where the killer lured vulnerable women from Vancouver’s impoverished Downtown Eastside….
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Children+serial+killer+Robert+Pickton+victims+will+split/9631594/story.html

Miranda Barbour “Satanic cult” kept a horror journal detailing murders, Arrest Of Rabbi For Distributing Child P_rn, Action by Campus Rape Victim, One Third Of E.U. Women Suffer Abuse

– ‘My life with the thrill-kill cult’
– ‘If I get out of here I’d do it again’: Mother admits Craigslist killer kept a horror journal detailing murders
– Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Arrest Of Brooklyn Rabbi For Distributing Child Pornography
– Landmark Civil Rights Action Filed by Campus Rape Victim to Halt New Federal Law
– World E.U. Study: One Third Of E.U. Women Suffer Abuse

‘My life with the thrill-kill cult’
By Francis Scarcella March 1, 2014

Two months after her arrest for murder, Sunbury, Pennsylvania’s most notorious resident wrote me a letter. “I put you on my visitor’s list,” she wrote in neat handwriting. “The rest is up to you.”
Sideways was her signature: Miranda Barbour….

Now Miranda, all of 19 years old, wanted to tell her side of the story.
It was Valentine’s Day. She sat behind the glass, impassive in an orange prison suit, and gestured for me to pick up the phone. A voice came on the line, warning us that the conversation was being recorded.

“Wish you could have had your pad and pen,” Miranda said.
They didn’t let reporters record conversations, I explained. Memory would have to do. “I have a lot of things I want to say,” she said. “Some of which will be difficult to hear.”

Her voice was very soft and high, like that of a little girl.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve done this.” Lured a man on Craigslist?
“This was the first time on Craigslist, but I’ve killed before.” It took me a moment to absorb that. How many times? “Less than 100.”
Miranda, I said, no one in the world is going to believe you killed 100 people. Give me a number.
“Well,” she said, “I stopped counting at 22.”….

As a teenager, Miranda began to hang out with older men and would run away from home.
“She would be gone for days at a time,” Dean said. “I would be out on the streets looking for her.”

Miranda always returned home, but sometimes with stories that were hard to believe, her mother said. She also was in and out of treatment for cutting herself; “One time she cut herself so deep it was into the tissue,” Dean said.

The family moved to Florida for a year after Miranda’s father took a job. “She told me about things that would happen to her there,” Dean says, crying, “She said she would walk on the docks and piers and smoke weed and sleep with other guys.”….

Miranda fills in the missing days of her childhood with stories of horrors. She was part of a Satanic cult, she says, a gang that would perform occult rituals in the Alaskan woods.

She first killed at age 13.
“I lured a man into an alley that owed the gang leader money,” Miranda said.

“He shot the man and then gave me the gun and told me it was my turn. I hate guns and I couldn’t do it, so he put his hands on my hands and we pulled the trigger,” she said.

Authorities are still trying to find out if there is any truth to what Miranda is claiming. Miranda explained at that point she knew she had something bad inside her and that Satanism let her embrace it.

After that, she said she only targeted “bad people” and those who had hurt children. She says she’s willing to “pinpoint on a map” where she murdered.

An ex-boyfriend, meanwhile, has given Dean an old journal he claims is Miranda’s — a diary the mother will not release but wants to talk to her about.  “There are things in here that just can’t be true,” Dean said. “Some of this I just don’t believe. “I don’t believe she has done any of what she is saying, and I don’t know why she is saying all of these things.”

“Who’s to say how many,” Elytte said about his wife’s claims during a phone call placed to reporters. “I know what she told me was 50-50.”
http://nypost.com/2014/03/01/my-life-with-the-thrill-kill-cult-teen-serial-killer-tells-all/

‘If I get out of here I’d do it again’: Mother admits Craigslist killer kept a horror journal detailing murders as she claims she would have spared her married victim if he’d told her 16 was too young for sex

Miranda Barbour, 19, says that she is confessing to the killings to keep her behind bars so she won’t kill again
Her mother Elizabeth Dean says she has a diary with stories that ‘can’t be true,’ but would not confirm or deny they were records of murders
Miranda Barbour said the original plan was to let victim Troy LaFerrara go if he backed when she said she was underage – but he didn’t
The self-confessed serial killer was molested at age 4 and may have decided to kill other child molesters

By Ryan Gorman
1 March 2014
The self-confessed Satanic serial killer who claims to have murdered more than 22 people may have kept a record of the slayings.

Elizabeth Dean confirmed an ex-boyfriend of daughter Miranda Barbour, 19, gave her a diary he claimed was her’s just as the teen appears to have revealed a motive for the supposed killings – revenge.

Miranda Barbour told the New York Post from jail that she would have let Troy LaFerrara, 42, of Sudbury, Pennsylvania go had he stopped groping her when she said she told him she was barely 16-years-old – she was molested at age 4.

Dean did not deny the horror journal was filled with details on the murders, but stopped short of confirming exactly what was scrawled on its pages….

‘There are things in here that just can’t be true,’ she told the paper. ‘Some of this I just don’t believe.

‘I don’t believe she has done any of what she is saying, and I don’t know why she is saying all of these things,’ Dean continued.

The mother also confirmed a claim made by her daughter that she was molested at age 4, saying she immediately went to police and the man was arrested.

Revelations of the murder memoir come as Miranda Barbour claims she is confessing to the killings so she remains behind bars….

‘I still love her,’ Barbour said over a secure telephone line from the jail where he’s awaiting trial for allegedly luring a man through Craigslist, strangling and stabbing him 20 times with his love, three weeks after they were married.

Speaking to CNN Wednesday, heacknowledged, ‘Everyone wants to know about her credibility,’ but wouldn’t comment on whether her confessions were valid.

However, he said she was upfront with him in ‘about 50/50’ of the alleged slayings, with respect to specific names of victims and the locations of the murders….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2571246/If-I-Id-Mother-admits-Craigslist-killer-kept-horror-journal-detailing-murders-claims-spared-married-victim-hed-told-16-young-sex.html

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Arrest Of Brooklyn Rabbi For Distributing Child Pornography
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and James T. Hayes, Jr., the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (“ICE”) Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), announced today the arrest of SAMUEL WALDMAN for distributing child pornography. WALDMAN, 52, a rabbi and a teacher at a girl’s seminary, was arrested by HSI agents this morning at his residence in Brooklyn, New York. He was presented today before U.S. Magistrate Judge James L. Cott in Manhattan federal court.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “Samuel Waldman’s position of trust in the community, as both a rabbi and a teacher, makes his alleged distribution of child pornography all the more disturbing. As we have said repeatedly, we have zero tolerance for the exploitation of children and we will prosecute and punish those who engage in this conduct.”….

According to the allegations in the criminal Complaint filed today in Manhattan federal court, in or about November 2013, WALDMAN distributed child pornography over the Internet by making available for downloading through file-sharing software multiple videos depicting minors engaged in sexual acts.
http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/March14/SamuelWaldmanArrestPR.php

Landmark Civil Rights Action Filed by Campus Rape Victim to Halt New Federal Law

University of Virginia rape victim files suit to stop Campus SaVE Act from undermining federal investigations of UVA’s alleged mishandling of her sexual assault case

A University of Virginia rape victim represented by the Marsh Law Firm has filed a landmark civil rights action to stop a new federal law from undermining pending federal investigations of UVA’s mishandling of a sexual assault case on campus.

Two separate cases—each filed as a Petition for a Writ of Mandamus and Equitable Relief—were lodged with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday, February 21, 2014 and docketed today. The cases are:

Jane Doe v. United States Department of Health and Human Services and Kathleen Sebelius, Civil Action No. 14-0366

Jane Doe v. United States Department of Education and Arne Duncan, Civil Action No. 14-0367

The cases were filed in an effort to halt the Campus SaVE Act—a new federal law that will substantially weaken the rights of sexual assault victims on college campuses guaranteed under Title IX—which is scheduled to take effect on March 7….

One in four to one in five women is sexually assaulted during college in the United States, according to recent studies. Under federal civil rights laws, students are guaranteed the right to an education free from violence and harassment….
http://www.childlaw.us/landmark-civil-rights-action-filed-by-campus-rape-victim-to-halt-new-federal-law/

World E.U. Study: One Third Of E.U. Women Suffer Abuse
Kharunya Paramaguru March 5, 2014
One in ten claims to have experienced sexual violence by age of 15

A comprehensive and damning report published Wednesday revealed the “extensive” levels of abuse faced by women across the 28-member states in the European Union.

Published by the E.U. Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), the survey of 42,000 women aged 18-74 across the E.U. found a third of women in Europe (62 million) had suffered a physical or sexual assault. 1 in 10 women also said they had experienced some kind of sexual violence from an adult by the time they reached 15. Another 1 in 10 had experienced sexual violence since the age of 15….
http://time.com/12705/study-one-third-of-e-u-women-suffer-abuse/

 

Craigslist Killer: Miranda’s dad supports daughter’s execution if verdict is guilty, Miranda Barbour’s Husband: ‘Who’s to Say’ If She’s a Serial Killer?, Is this the world’s worst serial killer? Miranda Barbour reveals where her victims lay

Miranda’s dad supports daughter’s execution if verdict is guilty  By Francis Scarcella The Daily Item  February 19, 2014

SUNBURY — If Miranda Barbour is convicted in the murder of Troy LaFerrara and sentenced to death, Sonny Dean says he will hold the hand of LaFerrara’s widow as his daughter is executed.

Dean on Wednesday also said he believes his daughter may have been involved in one murder other than her alleged participation in the slaying of LaFerrara, the 42-year-old Port Trevorton resident who was fatally stabbed Nov. 11 in Sunbury.

Sunbury police accuse Barbour, 19, and her husband, Elytte, 22, in the killing.

Dean, speaking to the media for the first time since his daughter was arrested Dec. 3 in connection with the murder, said Miranda was a heroin addict, is the most manipulative person he knows and is a liar.

His daughter is not, he believes, a mass murderer….

The father of Barbour’s child, also a satanist, was murdered, she said during the jailhouse interview.

“I didn’t kill him,” Barbour said. “But I know all about it.”….

Dean did not dispute Miranda’s claim of being a satanist.

“Satanism is real,” he said. “It is a growing cult that will go to great lengths to seize our children. You don’t have to be affiliated with the ‘Church of Satan’ to worship him.”….
http://www.dailyitem.com/0100_news/x1783679838/Miranda-Barbours-father-Killing-spree-unlikely

Miranda Barbour’s Husband: ‘Who’s to Say’ If She’s a Serial Killer?  By Steve Helling 02/20/2014

….Meanwhile, police and FBI agents are scouring five states to find more possible victims of the petite 19-year-old mother. So far, there have been no results. “Investigators are looking into a couple of cases, but have not connected anything else to Miranda Barbour,” an FBI source tells PEOPLE. “We don’t have proof that she committed other murders.”

….Some of Miranda Barbour’s claims seem too outrageous to be true. In her jailhouse interview, she said she was a member of a Satanic cult and had a murderous alter ego named “Super Miranda.” She also reportedly admitted to having a favorite knife that had notches on it, one for each victim. “There might be a knife with notches,” the FBI source tells PEOPLE, “but that proves nothing. We need solid evidence.”

So is Barbour a serial killer? Law enforcement officials in Alaska, North Carolina and Pennsylvania have found no evidence of other murders. Why would she lie?

“Attention. Psychosis. Strategy,” says the FBI source. “Maybe she wants to look crazy as a way to gain sympathy. On the other hand, she may have killed before. We need to check it out.”
Reporting by ELAINE ARADILLAS and SUSAN KEATING
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20788732,00.html

Is this the world’s worst serial killer? Miranda Barbour reveals where her victims lay
AFTER years of killing, Miranda Barbour found it hard to keep track. “When I hit 22, I stopped counting,” the pretty teenager says. “But it’s less than 100.”
By: Peter Sheridan
Published: Thu, February 20, 2014

….Barbour met her husband after they joined the Satanist cult which has dominated her life and allegedly led to her first killing at the tender age of 13.

She traces her murderous desires back to the age of four when she was molested by an uncle.

Her mother Elizabeth Dean, 41, confirms that her sister’s husband was sentenced to 14 years in prison for child sex abuse. “It was bad,” says Dean. “I never let her stay anywhere except for my sister’s house and I was devastated when I found out.”

Nine tormented years later, Barbour joined a Satanic cult in Alaska, where her family was living and was quickly inducted into a life of murder.

The cult leader took Barbour along to meet a man who owed him money, she recalls.

“It was in an alley and he shot him,” says Barbour. “Then he said to me that it was my turn to shoot him. I hate guns. I don’t use guns. I couldn’t do it.

“So he came behind me and he took his hands and put them on top of mine and we pulled the trigger. And from there I just continued to kill.”….

And the newlyweds decided to celebrate their third week’s anniversary by murdering someone together.

“He is proud of what he did,” she says. “I will always love him.”….

She shows no remorse and, against her lawyer’s advice, wants to come clean and stop living a lie.

“By no means is this a way to glorify it or get attention,” she says. “I feel it is time to get all of this out. I don’t care if people believe me. I just want to get it out.”
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/460712/Is-this-the-world-s-worst-serial-killer-Miranda-Barbour-reveals-where-her-victims-lay

Night Stalker serial killer who terrorized California with a spree of satanic murders dies in hospital after 24 years on death row, Experts see strong link between sexual abuse and obesity

– Night Stalker serial killer who terrorized California with a spree of satanic murders dies in hospital after 24 years on death row
– Food Addiction In Women Tied To Sexual, Physical Abuse During Childhood
– Abuse victimization in childhood or adolescence and risk of food addiction in adult women
– How Childhood Trauma Can Cause Adult Obesity
– Experts see strong link between sexual abuse and obesity

Night Stalker serial killer who terrorized California with a spree of satanic murders dies in hospital after 24 years on death row

Richard Ramirez, 53, died of liver failure while awaiting execution
Ramirez was convicted in 1989 of 13 murders and later tied to several more. He was a self-proclaimed follower of Satan
His trial was a horror show in which jurors heard about one victim’s eyes being gouged out and another’s head being nearly severed
He earned the nickname Night Stalker
By Associated Press Reporter and Daily Mail Reporter  7 June 2013

….Satanic symbols were left at murder scenes and some victims were forced to ‘swear to Satan’ by the killer, who entered homes through unlocked windows and doors.

After his conviction, Ramirez flashed a two-fingered ‘devil sign’ to photographers and muttered a single word: ‘Evil.’….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2337625/Night-Stalker-serial-killer-terrorized-California-spree-Satanic-murders-dies-hospital-24-years-death-row.html

Food Addiction In Women Tied To Sexual, Physical Abuse During Childhood David Freeman 06/07/2013

But a shocking new study suggests that some cases of obesity grow out of sexual or physical abuse during childhood.

The study, conducted by scientists at Harvard Medical School, showed that women with a personal history of abuse are much more likely than other women to develop a food addiction.

For the study, a team led by Dr. Susan M. Mason, a postdoctoral fellow at the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, studied the link between childhood abuse and adult food addiction in 57,321 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study II.

(Food addiction involves behaviors such as repeated episodes of eating despite the absence of hunger and experiencing withdrawal symptoms when cutting back on certain foods, Dr. Mason told The Huffington Post in an email.)

Dr. Mason’s team found that food addiction was almost twice as common among women who indicated that they had experienced sexual or physical abuse before age 18 than among women with no history of childhood abuse, according to a written statement released in conjunction with the research. Women who had experienced both sexual and physical abuse were even more likely to have food addiction.

Overall, the prevalence of food addiction ran from 6 percent in women with no history of childhood abuse all the way to 16 percent among women who had experienced both sexual and physical abuse….

But studies have turned up links between childhood abuse and obesity in men, Dr. Mason told The Huffington Post. One 2009 study of more than 15,000 adolescents found that men with a history of childhood sexual abuse were 66 percent more likely to be obese than other men, Time.com reported in 2010….

As Dr. Vincent Felitti, co-principal investigator of the California-based Adverse Childhood Experiences Study and an expert on the connection between childhood trauma and adult health problems, told Syracuse.com in 2010, “the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and obesity later in life is major, but, since childhood sexual abuse is a topic protected by shame and social taboo, it is concealed by time and by secrecy.”

Dr. Mason’s study was published in the journal Obesity.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/07/food-addiction-women-sexual-physical-abuse-childhood_n_3398173.html

Abuse victimization in childhood or adolescence and risk of food addiction in adult women
Susan M. Mason PhD,     Alan J. Flint MD,     Alison E. Field ScD, S. Bryn Austin ScD, Janet W. Rich-Edwards ScD DOI: 10.1002/oby.20500

Abstract

Objective: Child abuse appears to increase obesity risk in adulthood, but the mechanisms are unclear. This study examined the association between child abuse victimization and food addiction, a measure of stress-related overeating, in 57,321 adult participants in the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHSII). Design and Methods: The NHSII ascertained physical and sexual child abuse histories in 2001 and current food addiction in 2009. Food addiction was defined as =3 clinically significant symptoms on a modified version of the Yale Food Addiction Scale. Confounder-adjusted risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using modified Poisson regression. Results: Over eight percent of the sample reported severe physical abuse in childhood, while 5.3% reported severe sexual abuse. Eight percent met the criteria for food addiction. Women with food addiction were 6 units of BMI heavier than women without food addiction. Severe physical and severe sexual abuse were associated with roughly 90% increases in food addiction risk (physical abuse RR=1.92; 95% CI: 1.76, 2.09; sexual abuse RR=1.87; 95% CI: 1.69, 2.05). The RR for combined severe physical abuse and sexual abuse was 2.40 (95% CI: 2.16, 2.67). Conclusions: A history of child abuse is strongly associated with food addiction in this population.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.20500/abstract

How Childhood Trauma Can Cause Adult Obesity
By Maia Szalavitz Tuesday, Jan. 05, 2010

….In recent years, studies by both Felitti and others have largely confirmed the association between sexual abuse — as well as other types of traumatic childhood experience — and eating disorders or obesity. A 2007 study of more than 11,000 California women found that those who had been abused as children were 27% more likely to be obese as adults, compared with those who had not, after adjusting for other factors. A 2009 study of more than 15,000 adolescents found that sexual abuse in childhood raised the risk of obesity 66% in males in adulthood. That study found no such effect in women, but did find a higher risk of eating disorders in sexually abused girls….
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1951240,00.html

Experts see strong link between sexual abuse and obesity
By Amber Smith July 25, 2010
Manlius, NY — More than half of the women Dr. Wendy Scinta takes care of at her Medical Weight Loss practice in Manlius have sexual abuse in their past.

Typically they lose weight, hit a plateau and put the pounds back on. Over and over again. Until they deal with their demons.

Scinta saw this happen so often, with up to 75 percent of her female patients, that the medical history she takes of new patients now includes questions about abuse. Her treatment involves helping patients be comfortable with the attention that comes with thinner bodies. Mandatory group therapy sessions take place weekly in her office’s conference room.

“If there’s obesity, there’s a good chance, especially if there’s morbid obesity, that something tragic happened in that person’s history, at one point or another,” she said. Those affected are mostly women, mostly 100 or more pounds overweight, and mostly binge eaters. All races, and all social classes are equally represented, she said….
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/07/linking_sexual_abuse_to_obesit.html

Brain – Psychopaths, C.I.A. Data Show 14-Year Project On Controlling Behavior

Y! Big Story: What the brain tells us By Vera H-C Chan 4/28/12

….Finding how to stop extreme behavior. Thanks to crime literature and serial killer movies, Americans are aware of many different “-paths”: sociopath, psychopath, and antisocial personality disorder. What has been a raging debate is if one is doomed to that diagnosis and basically lifetime incarceration, or if there’s a window of intervention. One researcher went on a roadtrip into the heart of darkness: Using a mobile MRI unit, a University of New Mexico associate professor of psychology took a snapshot of 2,000 inmate volunteers.

He found that compared to the average offender, 60 percent of psychopaths re-offend within the next 200 days. Maximum-security juveniles showed a similar pattern: 68 percent of individuals who were at high risk for psychopathy re-offended.

Using images of the brain, [Kent] Kiehl said he could predict psychopathy as well as one can with clinical error. (April 23, Duke (University) Research Blog)

Among preliminary findings, Kiehl zeroed in on the interaction with a gene (MAOA) and a “stressful” upbringing and that treatment like group therapy actually ends in “violent failure” among adults. For juveniles, intervention’s a different story and can show a 50% reduction in violent recidivism.

“We have a problem in the United States: We incarcerate a lot of people,” he said. “We incarcerate more per capita than any other country. It’s expensive—it costs $2.34 trillion per year, which is about the same as the annual estimate for all health care [in the country].” (April 23, Duke (University) Research Blog)

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/y-big-story-brain-tells-us-000534638.html

C.I.A. Data Show 14-Year Project On Controlling Human Behavior; Data From C.I.A. Show Project on Human Behavior

By NICHOLAS M. HORROCK Special to The New York Times July 21, 1977
WASHINGTON, July 20 The Central Intelligence Agency conducted a 14-year program to find ways to “control human behavior” through the use of chemical, biological and radiological material, according to agency documents made public today by John Marks, a freelance journalist….

Marks: “To be sure, drugs were a part of it, ” he said, ” but so were such other techniques as electric shock, radiation, ultrasonics, psychosurgery, psychology and incapacitating agents, all of which were referred to in documents I have received.”….

According to Mr. Marks’s documents and an earlier Senate investigation, the C.I.A. conducted secret medical experiments from 1949 through 1963 under the code names Bluebird, Artichoke, MK Ultra and MK Delta. The C.I.A. inspector general’s report in 1963 described the program as the “research and development of chemical, biological and radiological materials capable of employment in clandestine operations to control human behavior.”
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60A1FFC3E59157493C3AB178CD85F438785F9

Convicted Serial Killer Anthony Sowell – child abuse victim

Sentencing day 6: Anthony Sowell trial
08/08/2011 by Jen Steer, newsnet5.com

A Cuyahoga County jury will continue to hear from witnesses in the sentencing phase for convicted killer of 11 Anthony Sowell.

Last month, that same jury found the 51-year-old guilty on 82 of 83 counts, including aggravated murder. Now, jurors must determine if Sowell gets life in prison or the death penalty.

“It’s not normal for an 11 year old to have sex with 10-year-old niece,” social worker Lori James-Townes said. “There were high levels of promiscuity that are also red flags.” She also indicated that Sowell grew up in a house full of drug use, sexual abuse, incest and physical abuse….

“Essentially, he has indications of brain dysfunction,” said Dr. Watson, a forensic neuropsychologist. Dr. Woods, who is a forensic psychiatrist, said Sowell suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and psychosis….

Sowell is on the witness stand, answering questions from his defense attorney John Parker. He will not be cross-examined by the prosecution.

“She sexually abused me,” Sowell said, after an much older relative. “No, I don’t want to talk about that… There was a lot of sexual activity going on there.”

…”And it’s because of this abuse and this miserable, sad life he murdered 11 women?” assistant prosecutor Pinkey Carr said.

“That’s not just the only reason… There are multiple reasons,” James Townes said. She continues to emphasis the need for context, saying that abuse was just one of the factors over the course of Anthony Sowell’s life that resulted in murder. She points to sexual abuse, a strained relationship with his mother and witnessing other children being abused among the cause. The sexual abuse in the home reportedly started when some of the children were just 10 or 11 years old.

“It’s extremely underreported, I can’t say that enough,” James-Townes said. “The children were afraid. The children, the ones who did tell were beaten.”

…”When children are growing up in this type of situation, it impacts them in a variety of ways,” Lori James-Townes said. “It makes him susceptible to violence later in life.”

“There should be an assessment made when you see certain risk factors,” she said, referring to Anthony Sowell’s school records….

“Childhood abuse is the biggest red flag for adult criminal behavior,” James-Townes said. “The sad thing about this is trauma is extremely treatable… The problem comes in when they don’t get treated.” She said that telling the story is one of the most helpful ways to treat someone who has suffered trauma.

“We know that most people in prison, men or women, has suffered some sort of abuse,” she said. According to James- Townes, there is no therapy in prison, but they focus on reprogramming the individuals….

According to James-Townes, research shows that child abuse is severely underreported and that it’s not uncommon for people to not talk about the abuse until they are adults. She said she used a genogram to help explain the risk factors in Sowell’s childhood. A genogram is a visual depiction and a snapshot of a person’s family.

While pointing to the chart, James-Townes explains that Sowell’s paternal side of the family had a history of substance abuse and heart disease. The genogram goes back four or five generations, which James-Townes said is very uncommon to find those kinds of records.

On his mother’s side, the chart shows that Anthony Sowell was 17 years younger than his sister, Patricia. She said there were pregnancies when female family members when they were 12 and 15. Other risk factors include epilepsy, sexual abuse and mental problems….

James-Townes said that they need to pay particular attention to the trauma and abuse he suffered growing up, and the the abuse that people around him went through. Based on interviews with family, she said that Sowell kept to himself as a child and was isolated, despite going to school nearly everyday.

“It’s not normal for an 11 year old to have sex with 10-year-old niece,” she said. “There were high levels of promiscuity that are also red flags.”

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/crime/bodies_found/Sentencing-day-6-Anthony-Sowell-trial

neuroscience – brain of a serial killer; Rare Memo, Vatican Rebukes Cardinal

A Neuroscientist Uncovers A Dark Secret by Barbara Bradley Hagerty June 29, 2010

….Fallon set out to see whether anyone in his family possesses the brain of a serial killer. Because he has studied the brains of dozens of psychopaths, he knew precisely what to look for. To demonstrate, he opened his laptop and called up an image of a brain on his computer screen. “Here is a brain that’s not normal,” he says. There are patches of yellow and red. Then he points to another section of the brain, in the front part of the brain, just behind the eyes. “Look at that — there’s almost nothing here,” Fallon says. This is the orbital cortex, the area that Fallon and other scientists believe is involved with ethical behavior, moral decision-making and impulse control. “People with low activity [in the orbital cortex] are either free-wheeling types or sociopaths,” he says.

Fallon’s Scans
He’s clearly oversimplifying, but Fallon says the orbital cortex puts a brake on another part of the brain called the amygdala, which is involved with aggression and appetites. But in some people, there’s an imbalance — the orbital cortex isn’t doing its job — perhaps because the person had a brain injury or was born that way. “What’s left? What takes over?” he asks. “The area of the brain that drives your id-type behaviors, which is rage, violence, eating, sex, drinking.”

….Along with brain scans, Fallon also tested each family member’s DNA for genes that are associated with violence. He looked at 12 genes related to aggression and violence and zeroed in on the MAO-A gene (monoamine oxidase A). This gene, which has been the target of considerable research, is also known as the “warrior gene” because it regulates serotonin in the brain. Serotonin affects your mood — think Prozac — and many scientists believe that if you have a certain version of the warrior gene, your brain won’t respond to the calming effects of serotonin.

….according to scientists who study this area. They believe that brain patterns and genetic makeup are not enough to make anyone a psychopath. You need a third ingredient: abuse or violence in one’s childhood. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127888976

In Rare Memo, Vatican Rebukes Cardinal By RACHEL DONADIO June 28, 2010
ROME — The Vatican  drew aside, for a brief and puzzling moment, the thick veil that covers its internal business. It issued an extraordinary communiqué on Monday chastising a powerful cardinal who had criticized another powerful cardinal — proof of a battle inside the Vatican walls that mirrors the anger over sexual abuse raging outside them….On its face, the communiqué is a public rebuke to Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna. In April, he had implicitly criticized Cardinal Angelo Sodano, 82, the current dean of the College of Cardinals and Pope John Paul II’s last secretary of state, for blocking an investigation into an Austrian archbishop accused in the mid-1990s of abusing minors. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/world/europe/29pope.html