Denver Deaths of 5 Homeless Men Probed

They found the first two together, lying under a loading dock. Beaten to death. The next one was discovered the next day. He was bloody and unconscious on a sidewalk and died a week later. Beaten to death. After a brief respite, the next body was spotted snagged on sand in the middle of the Platte River. Beaten to death. The latest was found last week as city workers cleared a field. Beaten to death.

All the victims were homeless men, found in bustling Lower Downtown--one only blocks from Coors Field--and all died of blunt-force trauma.

The grisly discovery of five battered bodies in the last six weeks has Denver police investigating whether the rash of murders is the work of a serial killer preying on the homeless. Among the city’s estimated 5,800 homeless and those who seek to help them, fear is rising. Shelters are increasing foot patrols, searching abandoned warehouses and freeway underpasses, seeking to coax in the vulnerable and sick.

And Friday an anonymous donor offered $100,000 for information leading to the capture and conviction of the killer or killers--the largest reward ever put up here to solve a crime. Mayor Wellington Webb, calling the murders a public safety crisis and using emergency powers, ordered the city’s shelters to put in more beds to get the homeless off the streets at night.

The police, who faced a similar spree three years ago when three homeless men were killed in a month and a half, have assigned seven homicide detectives to the case, which has been given a high priority. Assistance from the FBI has also been sought.

Homeless advocates have long maintained that those who sleep in the rough in American cities are the most victimized by crime and violence. Those crimes often go unreported and, advocates say, are frequently given short shrift by police. But officials here appear to be taking the killings seriously.

“In Denver, whether one is living in a shelter or one is living in a palatial home, life is important,” said Webb at a news conference Friday, flanked by police officials and homeless advocates. “It is critical that we find out who murdered these individuals.”

The city’s 1,300 shelter beds are nearly always full, and now, with news of the murders reaching even the most reclusive transients, the shelters are bursting.

“The word of mouth on the street is incredible,” said Rev. Del Maxfield, president of the Denver Rescue Mission. His outreach staff has lately been bringing in an additional 60 men per night to the 110-bed shelter. “The fear factor out there is very high. The guys are starting to realize this is not a random thing.”

Police have little to go on in the five slayings, which they are treating as separate cases. According to Capt. Tim Leary, all the men were savagely beaten, some with weapons and some with fists and feet. Leary said that, while there are similarities among the attacks, “they are distinctly dissimilar in some respects,” but he would not elaborate.

Police acknowledge the possibility that a serial killer may be preying on the homeless but say it is also possible that some of the men were killed by one person and the other murders were carried out by a copycat. There are witnesses in only one case.

In the same time frame of the murders--since the beginning of September--authorities also have investigated four “serious” assaults against homeless men, they said Friday.

Authorities offered no motive for the killings of the men, who were described as physically frail and not having regular contacts with the social welfare system. According to Maxfield, two of the men were known at the Denver Rescue Mission. Donald Dryer and Milo Harris, both 51, were “really down and out guys, really hurting,” Maxfield said. “They were physically weak and feeble. Looks like someone is picking on the worst of the worst.”

Police have identified the other victims as Kenneth Rapp, 42, George Billy Worth, 63, and Melvin Washington, 47.

“I’ve been working with the homeless in Denver for almost 15 years and I’ve never seen anything like this pattern of violence against the homeless,” said John Parvensky, president of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. “It’s hard for me to imagine what might motivate this. There are some sick people out there.”

Denver’s homeless population has been displaced in recent years as downtown development, lofts and shops reclaim rundown warehouses and rail yards. More and more, homeless camps are springing up along the Platte River, which runs along the western edge of LoDo, the newly gentrified area of Lower Downtown.

LoDo is a busy neighborhood that is crowded day and night. It includes Coors Field, scores of restaurants and upscale shopping. That the bodies were found in such a busy part of town makes the murders seem all the more brazen.

Nationally, violence against the homeless has reached such a level that some advocates have called for such attacks to be considered hate crimes. Statistics about violence against the homeless are hard to come by, but in 1994 a comprehensive study commissioned by Coalition for the Homeless in New York found that 90% of the homeless people surveyed had had property stolen from them and 80% had been victims of violent crimes. An updated survey is being prepared.

In Denver, another study found that crimes against the homeless are seldom reported. Franklin James, a professor of public policy at the University of Colorado at Denver, found that 9% of those surveyed had been victims of crime within the previous month and only half said they had reported the crime.

Here, the deaths of five men whom authorities can’t even say were residents of Denver has begun to sink in around town. Newscasts show the mug shots of the bedraggled men, who police say remain all but anonymous.

“I can’t imagine why anyone would attack these men. They had no money, nothing,” said Steve Walkup, director of programs at the Rescue Mission. This is like hitting a lady that can’t protect herself. They were defenseless at the time. They wouldn’t have hurt anybody. We feel like we lost part of our family with these guys. It’s senseless.”