SERIAL KILLER FROM CHICAGO: ANDREW URDIALES (JUNE 4, 1964 TO NOVEMBER 2, 2018)

            On Friday, November 2, 2018, Serial Killer, Andrew Urdiales was found unresponsive in his cell in the Adjustment Center of San Quentin State Prison. He will be another murderer that bit the dust, he will never live to kill again and also not have the advantage of life over death of his victim.

Andrew Urdiales mugshot

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://thecount.com/2018/11/05/andrew-urdiales-suicide-san-quentin/andrew-urdiales-mugshot/]

  

Andrew Urdiales
Born	June 4, 1964 Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died	November 2, 2018 (aged 54) San Quentin State Prison, San Quentin, California, United States
Conviction(s)	Murder
Criminal penalty	Death; commuted to life imprisonment without parole
Details
Victims	8
Span of crimes	1986–1996
Country	United States
State(s)	Illinois, Indiana, California
Date apprehended	April 23, 1997

Andrew Urdiales (June 4, 1964 – November 2, 2018) was an American serial killer, who was convicted in Illinois in 2002 of killing three women, and convicted in California in 2018 of killing five women. He was sentenced to death in California, and committed suicide a few months later in California's San Quentin Prison.

Urdiales also attacked another woman in 1992, but she escaped. Authorities did not believe her when she reported the incident.

INTERNET SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Urdiales

Life

Early life

Little is known about Andrew Urdiales' childhood. In June 1977, shortly before his 12th birthday, he fiercely beat the family dog with a baseball bat and told his parents that the animal had been fatally injured in a fall. After successfully completing high school, Urdiales joined the United States Marine Corps. Between 1984 and 1991 he was stationed at the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California. Here Urdiales completed combat training, which he then used to kill women. He was trained as a Radio Operator at Marine Corps base Twentynine Palms and then served in Desert Storm. 

Serial killer ex-Marine convicted of murdering three women in Illinois in 2001 is now found guilty of killing FIVE more women in California two decades ago

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5763845/Convicted-killer-guilty-5-California-murders.html]

Murder series

Urdiales committed his first murder on the evening of January 18, 1986. At the Saddleback Community College campus in Mission Viejo, he stalked 23-year-old communication arts student Robbin Brandley and stabbed her forty-one times with a knife; she died on the spot. 

Two years later, on July 17, 1988, he shot 29-year-old sex worker Julie McGhee with a .45 ACP caliber pistol. Her body was found in a ditch near Cathedral City. Two months later, Urdiales struck in San Diego, killing 31-year-old sex worker Mary Ann Wells, whose body was found by police on September 25, 1988, in an abandoned warehouse. His fourth victim, 18-year-old Tammy Erwin, was found on the streets of Palm Springs on April 17, 1989. 

In 1991, he was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps and moved back to his parents' home in Chicago. In September 1992, however, he returned to California for a holiday. On September 27, 1992, 19-year-old Jennifer Asbenson met Urdiales when he offered to take her to work. The next day, Urdiales lurked nearby until Asbenson's shift ended around 6 a.m. and persuaded her to get in his car. He drove her out to the desert, hit her head against the dashboard, twined her hands, raped her, then put her in his trunk and drove off (presumably in an attempt to find a place to kill her). When he stopped at an intersection, Asbenson managed to open the lid of the trunk and flee. She reported the incident to police but they did not take her seriously. Urdiales returned his rental car the same day and flew back to Illinois. 

For three years he committed no murders due to fear of being discovered. When he returned to California in March 1995, he happened upon 32-year-old sex worker Denise Maney in Cathedral City. 

Urdiales forced her into his car and drove her into the California desert. There he shot her, undressed her, and left the corpse for scavengers. 

Urdiales now believed that he could just as easily commit murders in Illinois and the surrounding area. As a security guard in a Chicago mall, he enjoyed great trust among customers and in his family environment. He crossed the state line into Bloomington, Indiana, in April 1996, where he murdered 25-year-old Laura Ulyaki. Her body was found on April 14 in Wolf Lake, on the border of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois and Hammond, Indiana. On July 14, 1996, police found the body of 21-year-old Cassandra Corum in the Vermilion River mountains in Livingston County. 

Urdiales' death toll increased on August 2, 1996, when the body of 22-year-old Lynn Huber was found in Wolf Lake. Huber is presumed to have been Urdiales' last victim. 

In December 1996, Urdiales was arrested for possession of an unlicensed weapon but was released after paying a fine. 

His last attempted murder occurred in April 1997, when a prostitute he had threatened with a pistol and attempted to handcuff escaped from his vehicle.

Arrest and procedures

Andrew Urdiales was again arrested on April 23, 1997, when the police wanted to check his gun in connection to the ongoing series of murders. While ballistics tests were still ongoing, Urdiales made a full confession to all 8 murders. The subsequent lab tests supported Urdiales' confession and his involvement in the murders of Ulyaki, Corum and Huber. In collaboration with the California police, Illinois law enforcement agencies began drafting the indictment. Urdiales had no rational motive and said he was agitated when the women had begged for their lives. 

On April 29, 1997, an indictment was brought against Urdiales. However, legal and political debates delayed the trial opening for four years. The question was whether Urdiales should be punished with the death penalty. At that time in Illinois there was discussion as to whether the death penalty should be completely abolished. On April 30, 2001, the prosecutor decided to apply Urdiales for the death penalty. His trial opened on April 8, 2002 for the murders of Ulyaki and Huber. Urdiales was found guilty of two murders on May 23, 2002, and sentenced to death seven days later, on May 30, 2002. 

The case of Andrew Urdiales became a political issue for a short time. After a study by Northwestern University, Illinois, that some death row inmates had been innocent, and that innocence could no longer be judicially recognized, the Governor of Illinois, George Ryan, determined on January 11, 2003, that all 167 people sentenced to death in Illinois at that time would have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. Andrew Urdiales also fell under this commutation. 

Now, the prosecution prepared for indictment of the previously unresolved Cassandra Corum murder case. The process was opened on April 24, 2004. Urdiales, encouraged by defender Stephen Richards, changed his tactics, pleading guilty but claiming that he was mentally ill. Presiding Judge Harold Frobish nonetheless re-sentenced Urdiales to death on May 10, 2004. This death sentence was commuted to life in prison in March 2011 when Governor Pat Quinn signed into law legislation that abolished the death penalty in Illinois. 

At this time, Urdiales was incarcerated in the Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois.

California prosecution

On May 23, 2018, Urdiales was convicted in the murders of five Southern California women. Wednesday, June 13, 2018, a jury recommended the death penalty for Urdiales. The jury deliberated for one day. On October 5, 2018, Urdiales was sentenced to death.

Death

On Friday, November 2, 2018, at around 11:15 PM, Urdiales was found unresponsive in his cell in the Adjustment Center of San Quentin State Prison. Urdiales was alone in his cell, and prison officials said the apparent cause of death was suicide. 

2 serial killers found dead within hours on California's death row

[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/andrew-urdiales-virendra-govin-condemned-inmates-found-dead-san-quentin-prison-death-row/]

Sources and further literature

• Michael Newton: The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. 5. updated and expanded edition. Graz 2009, 534 Seiten, ISBN 978-3-85365-240-4.
• Peter Murakami, Julia Murakami: Dictionary of serial killers. 450 case studies of a pathological killing type. Ullstein Tb, München März 2000, 639 Seiten, ISBN 3-548-35935-3.
• “Confessions of a Serial Killer Part 1 and 2”, Inside Evil with Chris Quomo, HLN (parent company CNN), 6/30/2019, American Pay Television News Channel.

OTHER LINKS:

  "Serial killer Andrew Urdiales' victims". CBS News. 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2018-05-24.

    "Serial killer may face death penalty a third time". Chicago Tribune. March 10, 2011. Retrieved June 19, 2018.

    "O.C. wants killer after death sentence lifted". The Orange County Register. March 10, 2011. Retrieved June 19, 2018.

    "Killer Escapes Death In Illinois, But Still May Be Executed". CBS Chicago. March 10, 2011. Retrieved June 19, 2018.

    "Ex-Marine Convicted of First-Degree Murder in SoCal Serial Killings". NBC Los Angeles. May 23, 2018. Retrieved August 29, 2018.

    "Jury recommends death penalty for serial killer Andrew Urdiales". ABC7 Los Angeles. 13 June 2018.

    "Ex-Marine Andrew Urdiales Sentenced to Death for California Serial Killings". NBC Los Angeles. October 5, 2018. Retrieved October 6, 2018.

    "Serial killer Andrew Urdiales sentenced to death in murders of 5 women in Southern California". ABC7 Los Angeles. October 5, 2018. Retrieved October 6, 2018.

    "Ex-Marine Serial Killer Who Slayed 5 SoCal Women Gets Death Penalty". CBS Los Angeles. October 5, 2018. Retrieved October 6, 2018.

10.     "Convicted SoCal killers Andrew Urdiales, Virendra Govin found dead in San Quentin". ABC7 Los Angeles. November 5, 2018. Retrieved November 5, 2018.

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