Man vs. Beast-May 2004

Man vs. Beast

They were the most helpless of victims.

They were puppies. Tiny, scampering balls of affection that were willing to cuddle with anyone — even the young Colorado man who allegedly stole them from a no-kill shelter, bound their tiny paws with duct tape and set them ablaze in February.

The puppy burnings sickened animal lovers across the West. But more than that, the horrid crimes raised worries among crime experts, who see a dangerous link between those who torture animals as kids and those who take human lives as adults.

This past week, an incident similar to this blipped on Savannah’s radar, when someone decapitated and set fire to a stray cat that Linda Wilkins, who lives in Leeds Gates, had cared for. Kitten Witten, one of two strays Wilkins adopted, was found headless in a patch of burnt grass in Wilkins’ yard.

“Why would someone do this?” Wilkins asked a WTOC reporter. “Why would anybody do anything like this?”

Wilkins reported the incident to Savannah-Chatham police and told the TV station that the police documented the incident and said to call if it happens again. That’s it. She told WTOC that Animal Control would be responding soon, though recent history shows this cat’s death might be a case worthy of police investigation.

“Any time I hear about intentional violence toward an animal, particularly fire-setting, it is alarming,” said Diane Balkin, a Denver prosecutor who lectures on the nexus between animal torture and serial killers. “Cruelty to animals is one of the best predictors of future violence toward humans. So the red flag should go up.”

The sickening crime spree out West began in mid-February when volunteers at a Colorado Humane Society shelter discovered someone had shattered a window, unlocked a door and made off with several pups.

The suspect never intended to keep the 3-month-old dogs for long.

By nightfall, the suspect trapped two stolen dogs in a plastic kennel and set the animals on fire outside a local theater. One of the pups died inside the smoldering cage. Another, a border-collie mix, suffered third-degree burns and smoke inhalation, but broke free from its prison and survived.

But the puppy burner wanted more fun. This time he bound another stolen animal in duct tape. He set the puppy in a stairwell near a fitness center and torched it just hours after setting the first fire.

The suspect fled after a witness spotted him standing over the burning animal. Authorities found a bottle of rubbing alcohol near the fire scene, a label from Walgreen’s still attached. A quick review of the store’s surveillance camera showed the image of a young man purchasing two bottles of isopropyl alcohol shortly before the blaze began.

Pictures from the surveillance camera were shared with local television and news outlets. Two weeks later, police received a tip from a concerned woman, who said her daughter dated the man spotted buying rubbing alcohol at the drugstore.

A day later, Colorado authorities had Ryan Turtura, 19, in custody. He confessed to the acts and admitted that he altered his looks by cutting his hair and shaving after the surveillance video was released to the press. The cops seem convinced they have their man. But as yet, no one has a clue why Turtura, who has no previous record of serious crime, would strike out against dogs.

“A grief counselor talked to us and tried to explain this,” said Wendy Loy, manager of the victimized animal shelter. “She said you can’t explain it. She said these (kind of) people are born without the same emotions as the rest of us. They can play nicely with one dog and burn another without any emotion. It helps to know that he is not like us.”

Aside from the alleged crime, Turtura seems quite normal. His parents care about him. His friends are devoted to him. He’s even a pet owner and said to be extremely kind to his own black Lab.

Though he declined to be interviewed in detail about the case, Turtura spoke in a calm, confident and friendly manner during a recent telephone interview with Snitch.
“I know I will be found not guilty,” he said. “I am not afraid. I did not do anything.”

Turtura’s girlfriend and his roommates contend the cops have the wrong man. They say Jefferson County Sheriff’s investigators were under intense community pressure to find the dog burner. Naturally, they rushed to judgment and pressured Turtura into a confession, the friends believe.

“He did not do it,” said Desiree Beyer, a roommate who lived with Turtura for several months before the arrest. “He was tricked into confessing. He was told they had his DNA and fingerprints. This entire thing turned out to be a witch-hunt, because the police were under pressure to catch someone ... Look at the women during the Salem Witch Trials. They confessed,
too.”

Jefferson County officials deny any such claim.

“All our investigations are recorded and his defense attorney is more than welcome to have a copy of that,” said Jim Shires, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. “All of our investigators pride themselves in their work ethics. They will not do anything that would jeopardize a case. ... We think it is a legit confession.”

Friends of the accused puppy killer maintain his innocence. They describe Turtura as a friendly dog owner, who never got angry with anyone. “He’s a person who says laughter is the best medicine,” Beyer said.

The suspect’s girlfriend of nine months, Dana Redgrave, stood by her man.

“He’s a really nice person,” the 16-year-old said. “My parents are telling me I should rethink about being with him and that I should just move on. But I have feelings for him. No one sees him as doing this.”

The conflict between Turtura’s damning confession and the testimonial of friends paints a puzzling picture of the young suspect. But duality is not uncommon, according to those who study animal torturers.

In fact, it is not uncommon for an animal killer to show affection toward one animal before he savages another, the experts say.

Balkin, the Denver prosecutor, said the Turtura case bears notice.

“Cruelty to animals and the link toward other violence has been well-documented for centuries,” she said. “It does not take an expert to understand that the best predictor of future violence is past violence. Anyone capable of being cruel to something that is vulnerable, that cannot speak, and that provides unconditional love — has something really wrong.”

Clearly, not everyone who abuses animals in their youth matures to the rank of a serial killer. But many well-known mass murderers tortured animals long before they set their sights on humans.

Balkin provided the following list of noted serial killers, along with their earlier crimes against animals and pets:

* David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam” killer who murdered six people and terrorized New York City in the 1970s, poisoned his mother’s parakeet out of jealousy.

* Jeffrey Dahmer, the Wisconsin serial killer and cannibal who murdered 17 people over a three-year period, impaled the heads of dogs on sticks. He also staked cats to trees and tortured frogs.

* Albert De Salvo, the notorious “Boston Strangler,” trapped dogs and cats in crates then shot arrows at them.

* Richard Allen Davis, the man who raped and murdered Polly Klaas in Petaluma, Calif., in the early 1990s, set cats on fire and used them for knife-throwing practice.

* Peter Kurten, “The Monster of Düsseldorf,” who killed at least nine people in Germany, decapitated swans and tortured dogs.

* Kip Kinkel, who murdered his parents, then went on a school rampage in the 1990s, killed cats, dissected live squirrels and put firecrackers in the mouths of felines.

In Kentucky, residents experienced the strange phenomenon between animal cruelty and human murder in 1996 when Murray, Ky. teen Rod Ferrell broke into an animal shelter and killed several puppies. He dramatically escalated those crimes five weeks later, when he and several other youths beat a Florida couple to death.

In 1998, Ferrell, who billed himself as the leader of a vampire cult, pleaded guilty to the murders. He is serving a life sentence.

While plentiful, past events of animal cruelty are not guarantees of future violence toward humans. But numerous studies show a significant connection between animal abuse and violence toward humans.

A 2001 report by the U.S. Department of Justice entitled “Animal Abuse and Youth Violence” showed a strong tie between a rash of school shootings in the late 1990s and animal torture.

“Of nine school shootings in America (from Moses Lake, Wash., in 1996 to Conyers, Ga., in 1999) five of 11 kids in those incidents had a history of animal abuse,” according to the federal report.

The report suggests that the link between animal and human crime is international and cites a 1999 study in South Africa as proof.

The survey done by three South African researchers of 117 prisoners indicated that 63 percent of the men jailed for crimes of aggression admitted to past a history of animal cruelty.

“Most of the information we have (about the ties) comes from looking backward,” said Randall Lockwood, vice president of research and educational outreach with the Humane Society of the United States.

“You start with a population of incarcerated offenders and you look at their backgrounds. Generally, we find among violent offenders — serial killers, serial rapists — at least 50 to 60 percent had evidence of a childhood history of cruelty to animals.”

Lockwood said a recent study done in Massachusetts by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, found that area residents arrested for cruelty to animals as youths were four times more likely than their neighbors to commit violent crimes as adults.

“Most intentional animal cruelty cases involve young men — usually teens,” Lockwood said. “One motivation that runs through a lot of these is a need for power and control. Typically, these suspects are losers, people who don’t have a lot going for them in terms of any accomplishments.”

With no power of their own, animal torturers use creatures to lash out and startle the world, Lockwood said.

“Another appeal for them is the ability to get a big reaction out of society; to shock, offend and disturb people at low risk to themselves,” he said. “They don’t go after bears at the zoo; instead they do a cowardly act that takes on vulnerable victims.”

Obviously, anyone who gains power tormenting helpless animals as a teen might seek the same thrill later in life against more challenging targets.

“One of the concerns is that if someone gets a sense of power and control through inflicting suffering and death on innocent victims ... there is very good chance it will be repeated and escalated,”Lockwood Said.

He found that to be the case with Keith Hunter Jesperson, better known as “The Happy Face Killer” for sending smiley face drawings to the media. Jesperson beat stray dogs and cats with a shovel, then strangled them in his youth. Later, he murdered at least eight women.

Lockwood once interviewed the serial murderer in prison.

“Keith said he killed lots of cats while growing up in rural Canada,” Lockwood said. “He killed them in a variety of cruel ways and it made him feel good ... I spent a day with him to get more on how he had made the progression to humans. He said there was not much difference between killing a cat and killing a person, except it was easier to kill a person. He said a cat will run away, but a hooker will come over if you have a $20 bill.”

To Jesperson, little difference appeared between taking the life of an animal or person.

“For him there is a sense of empowerment,” Lockwood said. “He said when you have your hands around the throat of a puppy, cat or human, you get to be God. There was no greater rush for him than that.”

May 2004 from http://national.snitch.com/2004/05/07/dogboys