Return To New York
Shawcross moved with his wife (who would soon divorce him) from Oklahoma to Clayton, New York, and he began committing crimes such as arson and burglary. His offenses earned him a five-year sentence to be served in Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York. Shawcross was later transferred to the Auburn Correctional Facility in Auburn, New York, and would serve a total of twenty-two months in prison.
Paroled in October 1971, Shawcross returned to Watertown, eventually getting a job with the Watertown Public Works Department, and marrying for a third time. On May 7, 1972, Shawcross sexually assaulted and murdered 10-year-old Jack Owen Blake after luring the boy into some woods in Watertown. On September 2, 1972, he raped and killed eight-year-old Karen Ann Hill, who was visiting Watertown with her mother for the Labor Day weekend.
Arrested for these crimes, Shawcross confessed to both murders. Under a plea bargain deal, he revealed the location of Blake's body. Shawcross then pled guilty to killing Hill on a charge of manslaughter and the Blake murder charges were dropped. Shawcross was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.
Shawcross served 14½ years in state prison before he was released on parole in April 1987. He had difficulty settling down in communities as the neighbors would protest his presence and employers would fire him. He first moved into Binghamton, New York, then relocated to Delhi, New York, with his girlfriend, Rose Marie Walley. When Shawcross' presence became known in Delhi, the couple moved to nearby Fleischmanns, New York, only to be met with hostility there. Finally, Shawcross' parole officer relocated him to Rochester, New York in late June 1987, and moved him and Walley into the Cadillac Hotel, a hotel for transients, in downtown Rochester. The parole officer failed to notify anyone in the Rochester law enforcement community that a child molester/killer now lived in their city. In mid-October 1987, Shawcross and Walley found more permanent lodgings in the Normandie Brownstone Apartments, at 253 Alexander Street in Rochester.
Read more about this topic: Arthur Shawcross
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