Ten
years ago on this date, May 13, 2005 the Roadside Strangler, Michael Bruce Ross
was executed by lethal injection in Connecticut. I will post information about
him from Wikipedia and other links.
 |
|
Michael Bruce Ross (Nov.
21, 1998 mugshot)
|
Born
|
July
26, 1959
Putnam, Connecticut |
Died
|
May 13,
2005 (aged 45)
Somers, Connecticut |
Cause of
death
|
Lethal
Injection
|
Other names
|
The
Roadside Strangler
|
Criminal
penalty
|
Death
penalty
|
Killings
|
|
Victims
|
8
|
Span of
killings
|
May 12,
1981–June 13, 1984
|
Country
|
United
States
|
State(s)
|
Connecticut
and New York
|
Date
apprehended
|
June
29, 1984
|
Michael Bruce Ross (July 26, 1959 – May 13, 2005) was an American serial
killer. In 2005, he was executed by the state of Connecticut, making it the
first execution in Connecticut (and the whole of New England) since 1960.
Early life
Ross
was born in Putnam, Connecticut on July 26, 1959 to Patricia Hilda Laine and
Dan Graeme Ross. The oldest of four children, having two younger sisters and a
younger brother, he grew up on a chicken farm in Brooklyn, Connecticut. Ross's
home life was extremely dysfunctional; his mother, who had abandoned the family
at least once and had been institutionalized, beat all four of her children,
saving the worst for him. Some family and friends have suggested that he was
also molested by his teenaged uncle, who committed suicide when Ross was six.
He was a bright boy who performed well in school. He graduated from Killingly
High School in Killingly, Connecticut in 1977, and graduated from Cornell
University in Ithaca, New York, where he studied agriculture, in May 1981. He
became an insurance salesman. He exhibited antisocial behavior from a young
age. Ross began stalking women in his sophomore year of college and, in his
senior year, he committed his first rape. His first murder followed soon after.
Crime spree
Between
1981 and 1985, Ross murdered eight girls and women aged between 14 and 25 in
Connecticut and New York. He raped seven out of his eight murder victims. He
also was alleged to have raped, but not killed a 21-year old woman named Vivian
Dobson in 1983. Plainfield police rejected the possibility that Ross had been
Vivian Dobson's rapist. They did not press charges and Ross made no confession.
Ross confessed to each of the eight murders and was convicted for the last four
of them. He was sentenced to death on July 6, 1987 and spent the next 18 years
on death row.
Victims
- Dzung Ngoc Tu (25) – May 12, 1981. Cornell University student
- Tammy Williams (17) – January 5, 1982. Brooklyn, Connecticut
- Paula Perrera (16) – March 1, 1982. Wallkill, New York
- Debra Smith Taylor (23) – June 15, 1982. Griswold
- Robin Dawn Stavinsky (19) – October 23, 1983. Norwich
- April Brunais (14) – April 22, 1984. Griswold
- Leslie Shelley (14) – April 22, 1984. Griswold
- Wendy Baribeault (17) – June 13, 1984. Griswold
Imprisonment
During
his incarceration, he met his fiancée, Susan Powers, of Oklahoma. Powers broke
up with Ross in 2003 but still visited him until his death. He became a devout
Catholic after his arrest in 1984, meeting regularly with two priests through
the years and praying the rosary each morning. Ross had accomplishments, such
as translating Braille, acting as a "big brother" to other inmates,
and sponsoring an impoverished child from the Dominican Republic.
Execution
Though
he opposed the death penalty, Ross strongly supported his own death sentence in
the last year of his life, saying that he wanted to spare his victims' families
any more pain. According to Kathry Yeager, a Cornell graduate, Ross believed
that he had been "forgiven by God" and that he would be going to
"a better place" once he was executed. She said, "He's not being
punished. He's moving on to life eternal. That's what is ironic about the death
penalty. He's looking forward to the peace." Yeager also said that Ross
had come to believe there was no way his death sentences would be commuted
without forcing the victims' families to suffer through more legal hearings;
and that he knew his life would be meaningful, even behind bars: "He's had
a horrible life, and he's wanted to do good." In spite of this, an hour
before the execution was to take place in the early hours of January 26, 2005,
Ross's lawyer, acting on behalf of Ross's father, obtained a two-day stay of
execution. Ross was then scheduled to die by lethal injection on January 29,
2005, at 2:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. However, earlier in the day, the
execution was again postponed because of doubts that Ross was mentally
competent; having fought against his death sentence for 17 years, he suddenly
waived his right to appeal. His attorney claimed that Ross was incompetent to
waive appeals, as he was suffering from death row syndrome. In his final days,
Ross became an oblate, or associate, of the Benedictine Grange, a Roman
Catholic monastic community in West Redding, Connecticut.
Ross
was executed by lethal injection on May 13, 2005, at Osborn Correctional
Institution in Somers, Connecticut. He was 45 years old. Ross did not request a
special last meal before facing his execution, thereby dining on the regular
prison meal of the day: turkey à la king with rice, mixed vegetables, white
bread, fruit, and a beverage. When asked if he would like to make a last
statement, he said, without opening his eyes, "No, thank you." Ross
was pronounced dead at 2:25 a.m. His remains were buried at the Benedictine
Grange Cemetery in Redding, Connecticut.
After execution
After
the execution, Dr. Stuart Grassian, a psychiatrist who had argued that Ross was
not competent to waive appeal, received a letter from Ross dated May 10, 2005,
which read "Check, and mate. You never had a chance!" Ross's
execution was the first in Connecticut (and in all of New England) since 1960.
It was also the first and so far only execution in Connecticut administered by
lethal injection. As of July 25, 2013, Ross is the most recent inmate executed
in Connecticut, although the state's death row houses 10 convicted murderers who
are in various stages of legal appeals prior to the abolition of the death
penalty in Connecticut on April 25, 2012. Vivian Dobson, whom Ross was alleged
to have raped, became a vocal opponent of the death penalty in an effort to
save Ross's life. The execution of Michael Bruce Ross was the first in
Connecticut in 2005, the first execution in Connecticut since 1960, the 22nd
execution in the United States in 2005, and the 966th execution in the United
States since 1976.
Pop culture
Michael
Ross appeared in a British television series about serial killers in 1995. The
filmmakers who produced the segment gave him the nickname "The Roadside
Strangler" because the other killers in the series had nicknames. One of
the producers of the series said the name may have been the result of a
brainstorming session at a motel bar. Ross was not called "The Roadside
Strangler" by the Connecticut media or by local law enforcement while he
was alive.
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