Luck, Skill Aid N.Y. Murder-Spree Probes

There are 8 million stories in the Naked City, and while over the years far too many have involved terrifying, utterly baffling murders, in just this past week the deft work and bizarre luck of New York area police seem to have stopped the deathwork of three separate crime sprees.

This city often stokes its frenzy by baptizing murderers and their victims with catchy nicknames, elevating the mayhem with an accompanying mythology. Now in police custody are a Bible-toting recluse who has confessed to being the much-hunted Zodiac killer and a jilted suitor who has admitted to a misogynic binge that included the death of the sweet-mannered Lollipop Lady.

First to fall into the police net was John Royster, 22, whose Japanese girlfriend had passed up his marriage proposal and returned home to Tokyo. His lovesickness then seemed to deteriorate into a rage against women in general.

Royster was arrested on June 13, trying to board the No. 6 subway without putting a token in the turnstile. A routine police check of his fingerprints matched up with those left at the Lollipop Lady crime scene. That murder, committed two days earlier, took the life of Evelyn Alvarez, who, along with her husband, had for 16 years operated a dry-cleaning shop on Park Avenue in the Upper East Side. The 5-foot, 100-pound woman was known in the affluent community for her generosity to children who stopped by for free candy.

At the time of the Alvarez homicide, the city was already wrought with jitters after the seemingly unrelated June 4 beating of a gifted pianist in that grassy emerald, Central Park. This particularly brazen and savage assault, which left the victim in a coma, took place in the afternoon light just feet from a winding pedestrian walk.

As police first interrogated Royster, he was only suspected of the Alvarez homicide. Then, after a detective befriended him with talk of their mutual love for martial arts, the young man asked for a chance to kneel and meditate. Minutes later, he confessed to not only the Park Avenue murder but the Central Park crime and two other assaults as well.

The tying of a subway fare-beater to a homicidal binge certainly appeared a nifty bit of police work. “When you go after petty criminals, you can also catch the big fish,” said Adam Walinsky, former head of the New York State Investigations Commission.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani was quick to share in the credit. His campaign against “quality-of-life crimes”--fare-beating, panhandling, loitering and the like--have led to thousands of misdemeanor charges. When the arrested are fingerprinted, they sometimes are linked to more grievous behavior.

New York’s crime rate is significantly down during Giuliani’s term, and a sense of collective relief is palpable. When marketing consultant Daniel Cohen moved here 5 1/2 years ago, he “felt like someone who had gone to Dunkirk instead of fleeing Dunkirk.” Now “the police are hot. There is no question the city feels safer.”

What better example? Most people had forgotten about the Zodiac killer, a sadistic fiend who had terrorized the city from 1990 to 1994.

The suspect in that case was arrested Tuesday after a three-hour shootout in Brooklyn. Police had responded to an unusual call. Heriberto Seda, 28, a loner who coveted the quiet of his room, allegedly shotgunned his sister in the back after growing offended by her boyfriend and the loud rap music throbbing from her stereo.

Detectives said they soon realized they were on to something more than a sibling quarrel. On a scrap of paper, Seda had doodled a small circle with a cross inside, a symbol reminiscent of one used by the Zodiac killer. Sure enough, his fingerprints allegedly matched up with those on evidence long in storage.

In a rambling confession, the faithful churchgoer told police how he stalked his victims, murdering three and wounding six, knowing all the while that “God forgave him.” So heavenly blessed, he became profoundly confident. He taunted the city with letters to newspapers and the police, boasting of plans to slaughter one person for each astrological sign of the Zodiac, a plan he now admits was self-propelled media hype as he instead chose his targets randomly.

A computer had plucked him from obscurity. “Our new computerized fingerprint system makes a big difference,” said Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert M. Morgenthau.

While New York officials were still congratulating themselves on the two big arrests, detectives from the city and suburban Westchester County on Thursday made yet another collar, this one a member of a gypsy clan staying with his mother on Staten Island.

Police say Larry Stevens, 31, is a con artist who worked the suburbs and towns nearby, showing up at elderly people’s homes and volunteering to do outside repairs. He would then ask for a glass of water inside and rob those who had trusted him. He allegedly beat up at least 12 homeowners, two of them fatally.

Once again, a fingerprint match was vital to the arrest. Police say the name Larry Stevens may be no more accurate than a dozen aliases. Detectives found their way to his mother’s residence by running various names, addresses and dates of birth through a computer. “How the hell did you find me?” Stevens asked police upon his arrest.

Such published details are reassuring to New York. Still, there are 8 million stories in the Naked City. Not long after detectives arrested Stevens on Staten Island, other police officers were investigating a booby-trapped mail package that harmlessly detonated in the home of a Brooklyn retiree.

The sender is believed to have been shipping similar lethally designed packages for 14 years, though none since one in Queens on June 27, 1995.

The Zip Gun Bomber was back.