Harvey Glatman - The “Glamor Girl Slayer”.
Harvey Glatman - The “Glamor Girl Slayer”.
On the 19th of September 1959, 31 year old Harvey Glatman was executed in California’s gas chamber at San Quentin prison for the rape and murders of two young women in Los Angeles.
He had shown deviant sexual behaviour since childhood and was very into ropes, strangulation and autoerotic asphyxia. His parents sought treatment for his paraphalia but the doctors thought he would grow out of it. Sadly, they were wrong.
By 1945 he had begun to indulge in serious crime and spent time in a Denver, Colorado jail for the molestation and robbery of Eula Jo Hand on May 4th of that year. His mother posted bail for him and on July 15 he bound, gagged, molested, and robbed Norene Lauer in Boulder, Colorado. Again, he was able to get bail, but on July 31 was sent to the Colorado Psychopathic Hospital where he would remain until September 8th.
After his release from this hospital he bound, gagged, molested, and robbed two more women in the Park Hill neighborhood of Denver. He also molested another Denver woman, who screamed and ran out of her house. He was arrested for these crimes on September 30th. These cases were dismissed on November 4, 1945
However he was sentenced to 1 - 5 years in the Colorado State Penitentiary for the Eula Jo Hand case. He was paroled after just eight months. He moved to New York and committed further crimes there for which he served time in Sing Sing Prison from 1947 to 1956.
In January 1957 Glatman moved to Los Angeles in California where he set up business as a TV repair man. In this role he called at the house of 19 year old Judy Dull. He persuaded her to come to his home for a modeling assignment for which he would pay her $50. He raped her and then drove her to Indio where he tied her up, photographed her and then strangled her with a rope on August 1, 1957.
His next victim was 24 year old Shirley Ann Bridgeford, who was murdered on March 9, 1958. Again, he persuaded her to let him tie her up and photograph her in the desert east of San Diego. She too was strangled and her body dumped in some bushes.
On July 24, 1958 he murdered 24 year old Ruth Mercado in San Diego County, California in the same manner as his two previous victims.
He tried again on October 27, 1958. He had lured Lorraine Vigil into his car and pulled a gun on her. She fought back and the struggle was noticed by a passing police officer who arrested Glatman.
Under interrogation Glatman confessed to the murders and showed police where he had dumped the bodies. At his trial before Superior Judge John A.
Hewicker he pleaded guilty and told the judge "I think the actions I did justify that. My plea speeds things up.". He was sentenced to death for the murders of Bridgeford and Mercado on December 16, 1958 and transferred to Death Row at San Quentin. He confessed to but was not tried for Judy Dull’s murder.
His execution was carried out at at 10 a.m. on September 18, 1959 and took twelve minutes in all. He entered the chamber at 10:01; he was strapped down by 10:02. At 10.03 the sodium cyanide pellets dropped into the vat of acid beneath the chair and the cyanide fumes began to rise.
Doctors listening to his pulse using a Bowles stethoscope recorded his pulse had quickly risen to 200. By 10:05 it was down to 60.
Glatman gasped at 10:06, drooled at 10:07, and his head dropped, raised back up again, and twitched. He was pronounced dead at 10.12 a.m.
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