‘Trash Bag Murders’ Killer’s Story of Revenge
by Riverside (AP)
Patrick Wayne Kearney, sentenced to life Imprisonment after pleading guilty to three of the so-called trash bag murders, said the killings helped vent his frustrations and gave him feelings of power. The lifting of a gag order yesterday led to release of details of the killings. Included were Kearney’s interviews with two doctors in which he said his victims often were people who had taken advantage of his good will. And prosecutors disclosed that Kearney often came dangerously close to getting caught. Once he locked himself out of his car while a victim’s body was inside. Another time he had a flat tire while carrying another victim.
Kearney also said his case may have inspired the Hillside Strangler murders of 11 young women over the past few months. “It seems like that started about the time I got into the news,” Kearney speculated yesterday after his sentencing for the first-degree murders of Albert Rivera, 21, of Los Angeles; Arturo Marquez, 24, of Oxnard; and John LaMay, 17, of El Segundo. Kearney, 37, was arrested in July. The killings, linked to homosexual activities, were termed the “trash bag murders” because many of the 15 victims were found dumped along, highways in large plastic trash bags. Authorities have said Kearney may be linked to as many as 28 slayings.
Kearney declined to comment yesterday on the slayings. “I can’t allow myself to think about it much,” he said. “It’s too painful.” Superior Court Judge John Hews imposed the life term after Kearney requested immediate sentencing. Hews told Kearney that he probably never will be paroled. Jay Grossman, Kearney’s attorney, said the guilty plea was being made over his objections. With the lifting of the gag order, previously confidential reports in which Kearney talked about his deeds were released. Quoting from the reports, the Riverside Press-Enterprise today revealed that Kearney explained to doctors that his killings vented his frustrations and gave him feelings of power. His victims were those who were taking advantage of his good will or were like those who had persecuted him as a child, Kearney told two doctors.
He told one doctor, John F. McMullin, that he did not consider himself to be mentally ill. McMullin, in his report, gave details of his December 3 interview with Kearney: “He blandly described how he shot his victim in the head with a caliber pistol without any anger towards them.” Kearney was described by Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Daniel Bacalski as killing cooly, but sometimes finding himself close to being caught. For example, he told investigators how he had stuffed a body into a trash bag, put it in his car, and was driving with it in the desert when a tire went flat, Bacalski said.
When he discovered that his spare was also flat, Kearney got a tow truck to haul his car to a gas station. The attendant fixed the tires, apparently without noticing the body in the car and sent Kearney on his way, Bacalski said. He told another doctor, Seawright Anderson, that ‘ his feelings of homosexuality began when he was 7 and. his first homosexual act occurred when he was 23.
Kearney told Anderson, I went through a period of frustration through my late teens, and I was slow to grow. I wanted to get even with people who were taking advantage of me.” Anderson said Kearney told him his victims “were people who were trying to get money out of him or had pushed him around when he was a teenager.”
