NOTE: This article originally appeared in The Atlanta Constitution on Oct. 21, 1994.
Acting Atlanta Police Chief Beverly Harvard said Thursday she is still not "comfortable suggesting we have a serial killer" preying upon crack-addicted prostitutes but a forensic psychiatrist disagreed.
"It's quite likely it's a serial killer," said Dr. Dave Davis of Atlanta, basing his opinion on news reports.
Harvard has put together a task force of seven detectives and additional support personnel to investigate any connections between the strangling of eight hookers.
Harvard said a copycat killer could be responsible for the slaying of Valerie Payton, whose body was found near her home Wednesday. She was stabbed and her throat slit - making her death initially appear dissimilar to the others - but an autopsy Thursday showed she was strangled, and the cutting began after she was dead.
"I'm not at this point comfortable suggesting that we have a serial killer," Harvard said Thursday after meeting with detectives. "If I get enough similarities, I don't have any problem saying that, but we can't rule out the dissimilarities."
Police arrested a man on a knife charge after the nude and beaten body of Lorraine Lansford - the last prostitute killed before Payton - was found in a burned-out house on Oct. 4. The man admitted having sex with her, but denied killing her, according to police documents. Walter Lansford, the woman's father, said police told him they didn't think that the man had killed her.
DNA tests being made
But police have ordered tests to see if the DNA of the man matches that of DNA evidence left on the scene of some of the slayings.
Police believe Payton was killed elsewhere and her body dumped by a railroad track. A note was left on her body that read: "I'm back in Atlanta."
"I doubt it's a copycat," said Davis, who has examined four serial killers and six mass murderers in his career.
"I don't think this is a person who is crazy," he said. "The main feature is his inability to empathize. These people have a combination of feelings. One, that they may have been victimized and are making things right, so they have a personal agenda. Second, this has a driven quality to it. The people who do this, . . . their anxiety mounts over a period of time. This is planned. It builds and once they commit the murder, it's a release. The drive is low for a while.
"They can only see in their mind that what they're doing is somehow good - that they're getting rid of all prostitutes or drug dealers," he said. "They are able to block out the more heinous portions of their behavior. People who know them might just say they are a little unusual or eccentric."
Davis said the cryptic note was written by someone who is looking for more publicity. Leaving it was risky, he said, because experts can tell a great deal about a person from handwriting.
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