E t T u M a g a z i n e 2 0 t h A n n i v e r s a r y F e a t u r e S t o r y T HEHOUSEONMAPLETREE Drive sits quietly, encircled by a white picket fence. White columns support the portico over the front door, and the landscap- ing feels fresh and precise, maintained weekly these days by gardeners. From the outside, few would guess a serial killer was born to this place. This elegant house is the childhood home of the “Melancholy Killer,” Edgar Lee Dwyer. From this quiet suburban life, Dwyer would go on to lose his par- ents at the age of 12 and later commit one of the most infamously terrifying murder sprees in the United States. “People were living in fear in com- munities all across the country,” said retired FBI agent James Reardon, who led the Melancholy Killer Task Force in the ‘90s. “He could strike in a major city or a small town, and his victims includ- ed those who were young and old, male and female. Even race did not matter.” Convicted only for the murder of Susan Rawlins of Lincoln, Nebras- ka, Dwyer is suspected of murders in Washington, California, Texas, Missis- sippi, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsyl- vania and Illinois. Although he never confessed to the crimes, the evidence against him was enough to sentence him to life in prison without the possi- bility of parole. Reardon understood the overwhelm- ing fear of the mysterious killer who traveled the country looking for victims. “It was the way he chose his victims that struck a nerve with everyone,” said Reardon. “Everyone thought ‘I could easily be his next victim.’” This fear was briefly renewed when, in 2013, Dwyer escaped from the Lis- tening Friends of America Cumber- land penitentiary where he was serv- ing his sentence. On March 23, 2013, Dwyer hid in the bottom of a large laundry bin covered with dirty linens. He had learned that LFoA Cumberland would sometimes utilize outside laundry services when inmate workers could not keep up with the demand, and he used this informa- tion to his advantage. Four bins, including the one in which Dwyer was hiding, were loaded onto a truck and driven out of the prison. When it was discovered that Dwyer had escaped, another nationwide man- hunt began. “I had just retired and finished my book on Dwyer and I thought, ‘Oh, no. Here we go again,’” Reardon said. “Luckily, his escape was short-lived.” Dwyer was arrested nearly three months later in Seattle, Washington. The escapee would not tell authorities where he had traveled, but investiga- tors feel confident that Dwyer did not commit any murders while he was on the run. Daniel Lott, a detective for the Seattle Police Department, witnessed Dwyer’s rapid arrest in his city, although he was not directly responsible for apprehend- ing the convict. Lott was called in be- cause of his involvement with the case in the past: a stroke of luck in 1997 that helped put all the pieces together. MOVING IN ON A MURDERER In May 1997, Texas police found the Melancholy Killer’s third alleged victim, though they didn’t know it at the time. After the body was found with a poem, the Odessa Police Department sent out a press release asking for the public’s help in finding the killer poet. Dwyer had already moved on, but a young detective from the Seattle Police Department was in town visiting fam- ily when he read about the case in the local paper. “My mind immediately went to a case we had earlier that year, in February,” Lott said. “I remember the shock I felt reading that paper … I contacted the detectives [in Odessa], and we knew we had found something big.” When the investigators got together and compared notes, they discovered they were dealing with the same killer. In both cases, the killer left poems at the crime scene and wrote a poem on the bathroom wall of a local gas station directing police to the body. The FBI was contacted, and Agent Reardon was assigned to the case. “The first thing we had to do was con- tact other agencies to see if they had similar cases,” Reardon said. “As soon as we heard about Bakersfield [California], we went up there to speak with them.” The FBI knew they were dealing with a serial killer and within a few weeks they were contacted by detectives in Meridian, Mississippi. The Melancholy Killer had struck again. Investigators dubbed Dwyer the “Melancholy Killer” because the po- ems left at the crime scenes were not his own poetry, but excerpts from po- ems by 18th century poets known as the “Graveyard Poets.” He also seemed to target people who were feeling de- pressed, or who had recently experi- enced a loss or tragedy. In August 1997, the FBI publicly con- firmed they were looking for a serial killer poet. “Suddenly, we were inundated with all these cases from across the country, but we could not link any to the Mel- ancholy Killer with certainty,” Rear- don explained. For a while, no cases—new or old— could be tied to the poetic serial killer. From the FBI’s perspective, it seemed as though the publicity had stopped the Melancholy Killer in his tracks. It wasn’t until late that year, in November, that a similar case was reported, this time out of Jacksonville, Florida. Following his crime in the Sunshine State, detectives found a college student’s body with the signature graveyard poem in North Carolina. It was then that the IN BOTH CASES, THE KILLER LEFT POEMS AT THE CRIME SCENE AND WROTE A POEM ON THE BATHROOM WALL OF A LOCAL GAS STATION DIRECTING POLICE TO THE BODY.