Eerie deaths of 17 women baffle Miami

I was doing some exploration of connections between the war on drugs, Just Say No, the Justice department and the deaths of Len Bias (college hoops player, drafted number 2 by Boston Celtics) and David Ruffin (sometime lead singer for Motown group the Temptations) when I came across this article from the May 14, 1989 LA Times that is the epitome of war on drugs messaging. Thought I would share.

Archive link to avoid paywall archive.is...

 In what has become a bizarre and persistent pattern, 17 women have died here in the past 2 1/2 years. All of them young. All of them black. All of them found in empty lots or gutted buildings.

Almost all were prostitutes. Almost all held traces of coc aine in their systems. Almost all were discovered naked from the waist down, with their legs spread apart.

Is it the work of a serial killer? Probably not. Most likely...the effects of coc aine.

All the corpses have been found in the north half of Dade County, though prostitutes and coc aine are commodities in the south end too. The first death dates back to September of 1986--or even earlier if, as some investigators figure, the list includes more than 17 names.

For a long time, the prevailing theory about the deaths was a highly unusual one--that the prostitutes died from the toxic effects of coc aine accompanied by the stimulation of sex. Neural exhaustion, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Charles Wetli called it.

If true, that would explain the partially disrobed bodies. Cheap hookers often exchange sex for crack coc aine. They ply their trade in abandoned buildings or the tall weeds of vacant lots.

The theory has an impressive advocate. Back in the late 1970s, Wetli was among the first to show that coc aine, even in modest amounts, could lead to death. He is the co-author of articles commonly cited in texts and journals, implicating the drug in a variety of fatal illnesses.

Many of the police think the theory is very plausible. “We’re just finding out all of what crack does to people,” said John Farrell, chief of detectives for the county police, which has jurisdiction in most of the deaths.

“In men, we’re finding that crack--in amounts 10 times lower than a basic overdose--sometimes triggers psychotic episodes where a guy just goes berserk, starts running a real high fever, then just dies.”

Maybe these women, then, were victims of prolonged binges on crack, living on the edge until even the relatively low arousal of sex-for-hire was enough to finally induce a fatal reaction.

The investigators don't even entertain the possibility of a serial killer until...

Then, last December, Body No. 12 was found. Antoinette Burns, 14, died in a junk-strewn yard under a Brazilian pepper tree. She was lying on her back. Her skirt was pulled up. Everything fit the pattern.

Or almost everything. The girl’s body tested clean for drugs. There was no evidence she worked the streets.

And that complicated the riddle. Either the teen-ager did not belong on the list--or her case tipped the scales further toward homicide.

What was going on? “We just can’t figure it,” Chief Farrell said. “There may be the possibility of different causes of death. Is there a serial killer? Is there a medical explanation? Maybe yes to all possibilities.”

The list has grown by five in 1989. More help has been sought.

The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta has been consulted regarding extensive toxicology tests. The FBI in Quantico, Va., has been asked to help put together the profile of a serial killer.

According to recent changes and new definition of what a woman is.....maybe they were some other type of human.. since being a woman is now confusing in USA.

a reply to: Antimony

a reply to: DeathSlayer

Now that seems like an unhealthy obsession, maybe one day you can reconcile with your fears and embrace them as part of you, instead of locking them in a closet...

Till then the OP has nothing to do with your phobias...

a reply to: Terpene

Who has the phobia?

a reply to: Antimony
If the culprit IS crack/coke, why wouldn’t this be a thing in all other major urban areas.
I doubt that Miami is the only city in the USA where you can find crack whores.
I am going with serial killer.

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: Antimony
If the culprit IS crack/coke, why wouldn’t this be a thing in all other major urban areas.
I doubt that Miami is the only city in the USA where you can find crack whores.
I am going with serial killer.

Exactly. But in the mid to late 80s and early 90s it seems a lot of bizarre things were equated with coc aine use. Similar to the Reefer Madness movie. Serial killer? Nah. Must be coc aine.

Mabye its a suicide serial killer!
He finds female that are depressed.
and like a Cult Leader he talks
them into a group sex suicide.
but he just has fun?

that last one did not take the drugs.
so with a plastic bag he asphyxiated her?

PS. I watch to many TV crimb shows

oh and just like jack the riper the cops dont do any thing.
untill a human female is killed that is not scum!!
as They would say.

I think the odd thing is that the cops dont do any
thing with 16 females kill in a serial killer fashion.
did a cop do it?

So they never found the killer? Or did I miss something.

Very sad case if not.
I wonder if anyone is still working on it?

a reply to: Observer19

You are right, probably not phobia as you'd avoid the topic all together...
I guess when your head is constantly circling around a topic and you can't help yourself to always jump there even when there is nothing to do so, you are higly fascinated or even addicted to the topic. Certainly not because you have a phobia...

WOW! this is from 1989 !!!
any one find out more?

The "War on Drugs" and AIDS were all the rage back then, mix in some threats of nuclear war and you have all the makings of a wonderful childhood!

Here is another story that was amplified and became well known even amongst youngsters of the time:

UPI ARCHIVES JUNE 11, 1980
Comedian Richard Pryor burned while "freebasing"

LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- Comedian Richard Pryor told doctors he was mixing coc aine with ether - a new drug craze known as "freebasing" - and the materials exploded in his face, causing severe burns that threatened his life, police said Tuesday.

"I screwed up, man, I screwed up," a neighbor quoted Pryor as screaming as he ran from his posh home in an apparent panic of pain.

Arson investigators said they found no evidence of drugs or flammable liquid in Pryor's home but they did not search the house until more than 12 hours after the Monday night explosion that scorched a wall, the ceiling and floor of his bedroom.

Police said Pryor had told the doctors treating him that he had been "freebasing,", and that the material exploded in his face and engulfed his body in flames.

An aunt smothered the blaze with sheets and Pryor then ran out of the house screaming in pain.

Freebase is a mixture of coc aine and some type of flammable liquid, usually ether, which is burned to purify the coc aine. Pryor has publicly admitted in the past he has used coc aine.

Pryor suffered first, second and third degree bums over 50 percent of his body and was listed in critical but stable condition at the Sherman Oaks Community Hospital burn ward.

Doctors said victims in Pryor's age group who suffer such burns have a survival rate of just 25 to 35 percent. But he was reported responding to whirpool treatments to remove charred skin and flesh late Tuesday.

Gary Swaye, assistant executive director of the burn ward, said Pryor was "lucid."

RIP Richard Pryor - Thanks for scaring us away from the new drug craze!

Read the rest of the story at the UPI SOURCE
A modern take on the story: ABC NEWS

a reply to: Antimony

Is it the work of a serial killer? Probably not. Most likely...the effects of coc aine.

That's not what your source states, although you left that part out:

Last week, for the first time, the county’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Joseph Davis, pronounced the deaths probable homicides. “I suspect we are looking at the work of one man,” he said.

Not sure why you're so sure it's otherwise...

I find it interesting that there is no mention at all of any DNA tests... for bodily fluids. The article rules out trauma, so presumably that precludes rape, and since they were prostitutes, bodily fluids could be expected. I would think even back then they could test for bodily fluids and determine if they traced back to one person?

"IF" it's a serial killer then how was he killing them? Couldn't have been a obvious method like a knife or gun. And the one girl tested negative for drugs? Either not part of the group or the killer has a method that leaves no evidence of it's use.

Unless this is a Supernatural episode and the girls are being scared to death. Or that far back maybe it's a Winchesters episode instead.

Business was slow, Joe Biden was sniffing around and they got bored to death?

a reply to: ntech

a reply to: Dalamax

1989 is a little too far back for a Biden.

originally posted by: Terpene
a reply to: Observer19

You are right, probably not phobia as you'd avoid the topic all together...
I guess when your head is constantly circling around a topic and you can't help yourself to always jump there even when there is nothing to do so, you are higly fascinated or even addicted to the topic. Certainly not because you have a phobia...

Would this be like your obsession with circumcision?

a reply to: Antimony

Very interesting. How the heck did you catch that?

a reply to: ketsuko

If anything circumcision is a factor for PTSD, at that age you can't fear anything, you fully trust your parents, even if they are some sick kid mutilating ones...

Precognitive strike?

a reply to: ntech