Parolee in Girl’s ’87 Death Held in 8 Serial Murders

A man paroled in 1987 in the killing of an 8-year-old girl was arraigned today on charges of murdering eight women in the Rochester area since March, 1988.

Arthur J. Shawcross, 44, a food service worker, pleaded innocent to eight murder counts before Rochester City Judge John Manning Regan and was sent to the Monroe County Jail without bail.

State Police Superintendent Thomas Constantine said in Albany that charges will be brought against Shawcross in at least three more Rochester murders and that he is a suspect in other deaths.

The bodies of at least 14 slain women have been found in the area in the last 22 months. Deputy Rochester Police Chief Terrence Rickard said there may have been as many as 17 serial slaying victims and that Shawcross may have told authorities where to find three bodies.

Most of the women, including June Cicero, 34, of Rochester, whose body was found frozen in a creek on Wednesday in Ogden, were involved in prostitution or drugs, police said.

Rochester Police Chief Gordon Urlacher said today that police believe Shawcross was responsible for at least 11 of the murders.

Shawcross was arrested Wednesday after officers in a police helicopter saw a car speeding away from the creek where Cicero’s body was found.

“The person derives some type of satisfaction from the murder and it’s very possible that they go back and look at the results,” Constantine said.

The Syracuse Post-Standard quoted sources as saying the suspect told police several women were killed for mocking him when he was unable to engage in sex; another was killed when she broke the gearshift knob on his girlfriend’s car; another because he thought she lied about being a virgin, and yet another because she pushed him into the Genesee River on a swimming outing.

Shawcross served 15 years of a 25-year sentence after a 1972 first-degree manslaughter conviction for the murder of Karen Ann Hill, 8, who was strangled and sexually molested.

He was paroled from Green Haven state prison in June, 1987, and appeared to be adapting well to life outside prison, Edward Elwin, executive director of the state Division of Parole, said today.

“Superficially, he was making a good adjustment,” Elwin said.