Patrick Kearney - Murders

Murders

As time passed Hill and Kearney would more frequently argue, and Kearney would go out for long solitary drives in his Volkswagen Beetle or his truck. It was then that he would pick up young male hitch-hikers or young men from gay bars and murder them. Kearney was primarily a necrophile and was generally consistent in the manner in which he murdered his victims and disposed of their remains. Standing only 5'5" tall, being of slight build and typically preferring victims of greater stature than himself, Kearney was forced to resort to a system of subduing his victims that was unlikely to fail and impose a situation in which he could be in physical danger or risk unwanted exposition to the authorities. Kearney was not known to resort to sadism or inflict pain on his victims in the same way that the other "Freeway Killers" did, preferring quickness and efficiency. While Kearney did later confess to having experimented with his victim's bodies out of curiosity, such as cutting open the stomach of one of his victims, this was done post-mortem and did not result in any physical suffering or resistance.

Kearney committed his first confirmed murder in 1968 while living in Culver City, CA, approximately one year after moving in with David Hill. Identification of the victim was impossible, as Kearney only knew the victim as "George". Kearney had met George around Christmas time of that year, when Hill had left to Louisiana and gotten arrested for vagrancy. As soon as George entered Kearney's duplex, Kearney shot him in between the eyes with his pistol. After killing George, Kearney brought the body into his bathroom where he dismembered the remains and skinned them with an X-Acto knife. After dismembering the remains, Kearney decided to extract the bullet from the victim's head as to ensure that it would not be traced to his gun. Afterwards, Kearney buried George's dismembered body behind the garage of his house. Kearney did not kill for over a year following this murder, primarily out of fear that law enforcement would inquire about George's disappearance.

As time passed, Kearney greatly refined his Modus operandi, which enabled him to carry out his crimes much more efficiently and frequently. Starting in 1974, Kearney is estimated to have committed murders on an almost monthly basis. After picking up his victims along the interstate or at gay bars in his Volkswagen or in his truck, Kearney would typically shoot his victims in the temple above the ear without warning with a Derringer .22 pistol in his right hand while steering his car with his left hand and simultaneously monitoring the speed limit to minimize the predictability of the altercation and to avoid disclosing any unusual behavior to potential witnesses. After murdering his victims, Kearney would leave the bodies slumped upright in the passenger seat and drive to a secluded area to sexually violate his victims.

After copulating with the corpses of his victims, Kearney would usually mutilate and dismember the remains with a hacksaw before disposing of them in various locations such as in canyons, in landfills and along the freeways, usually in industrial trash bags. In some cases, Kearney would dispose of the bodies in the deserts where the remains could be consumed by carrion-eating animals. Kearney would sometimes drain the victim's blood to eliminate odor and would also sometimes bathe the body parts prior to disposal to minimize the presence of dried blood and eliminate fingerprint evidence. Sometimes, Kearney would beat his victims after they were dead. Kearney perceived beating his dead victims as a cathartic exercise, and a means by which he could effectively vent suppressed anger and animosity and acquire a sense of power. Oftentimes, the victims resembled people who had bullied him in his childhood.

Although Kearney primarily preyed on young men, there were known child and adolescent victims. Kearney's youngest victim was Ronald Dean Smith, age 5, who disappeared in Lennox, CA on August 24, 1974. His body was discovered in Riverside County on October 12, 1974. Merle "Hondo" Chance, 8, of Venice, CA vanished on April 6, 1977 while supposedly riding his bicycle in the vicinity of Kearney's place of work. Kearney claims to have smothered the boy, taken his body home overnight and later disposed of the remains in the Angeles National Forest off of Angeles Crest Highway approximately 11 miles north of Altadena, CA. Chance's decomposed remains were discovered on May 26, 1977. Merle Chance was Kearney's last known victim.

On June 16, 1976, Kearney killed Micheal Craig McGhee, 13, of Redondo Beach, CA. Records confirmed that McGhee had a lengthy history of juvenile delinquency. Kearney claimed to have picked up McGhee while hitchhiking from Inglewood Avenue near Lennox to Torrance, CA. According to the police, Kearney had befriended the boy and invited him to attend a camping trip to Lake Elsinore over the course of a weekend. Kearney claimed to have perceived McGhee as a potential threat and shot him without warning, after McGhee openly boasted of his criminal exploits and inquired about the presence and location of burglar alarms in Kearney's home. Later, when interviewed by detectives, Kearney implied that he had destroyed the remains, stating "I disposed of the body...You aren't going to find him."

The victim that ultimately led to Kearney's arrest was a young man named John LaMay, 17, whom he killed on Sunday, March 13, 1977. At approximately 5:30 pm on that same day, LaMay had told a neighbor that he was going to Redondo Beach to meet a man he had met at a local gym by the name of Dave. This was in fact David Hill, and Hill had given LaMay the address to Kearney's home. Hill was absent when LaMay arrived at Kearney's home, so Kearney invited LaMay in to watch television until Hill returned. Without provocation, Kearney impulsively reached for his .22 Derringer and shot LaMay in the back of the head. Kearney later dismembered and dumped the remains in the desert.

During the time his killing spree was at its zenith, Kearney's odd tendencies went largely undetected. A local grocery store owner named Jerry Stevens did however note that Kearney had an unusual interest in knives, frequently purchasing butcher knives after examining them and inquiring about the quality of the steel. Stevens also described Kearney as, "a loner with an eerie sense of quiet about him." Kearney's supervisor at Hughes Aircraft referred to him as a "model worker."