- 6 days ago
Some criminals should never see freedom again. Join us as we examine shocking cases where dangerous offenders were released, only to commit more heinous crimes. From serial killers who manipulated the system to violent offenders who specifically asked to remain locked up, these cases will leave you questioning the justice system.
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00:00He is released and moves to Rochester, New York, and this became his playground.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at 10 examples of highly disturbed and dangerous people who were voluntarily let out of prison.
00:14And for the past two years, she has reportedly lived in this suburb south of Montreal with her husband and their three children.
00:21Harvey Marceline
00:22I take full responsibility for what I did. I have understanding now of what I did, and I'm a changed person.
00:28It's not often that someone kills two people and is let out of prison both times, but that's what happened with Harvey Marceline.
00:33Back in 1963, Marceline was convicted of murdering an ex-girlfriend and received a life sentence.
00:38But while behind bars, the sentencing laws changed, and Marceline told a three-panel parole board it will never happen again.
00:44Marceline was also continuously denied parole owing to violent and aggressive behavior in prison.
00:49However, after serving more than 21 years, Marceline was released in May of 1984.
00:53Just one year after release, Marceline committed a second homicide, killing Anna Miranda and disposing of her remains around Central Park.
00:59Marceline was convicted of the crime and re-entered prison, but was released yet again in August 2019.
01:04And yet again, Marceline committed murder, killing Susan Layden in February 2022 at the age of 83.
01:10This is just the latest of a list of heinous offenses conducted over a period of a lifetime by Miss Harvey, and we can only hope that she can do no more.
01:19Edmund Kemper
01:21Even as a young man, Ed Kemper was very disturbed.
01:27Following a difficult upbringing with his mother, Kemper was sent to live with his grandparents on their California ranch.
01:32However, his mistreatment continued under them, festering further resentment.
01:35On August 27, 1964, that resentment exploded, and Kemper murdered both of his grandparents.
01:41It started coming to a head again, so I went back down, I ran away back down there.
01:46And then a month later, I'm up living with my grandparents in the mountains, and 10 months later, I murdered them.
01:50Being just 15 years old, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and placed inside the maximum security, Atascadero State Hospital.
01:57While not a traditional prison, Kemper remained inside until his 21st birthday in 1969.
02:02Against the advice of the hospital psychologists, Kemper was released on parole and into the care of his mother.
02:06He would later murder his mother, along with seven others, in his famous crime spree of the 1970s.
02:11She said, for seven years, she said, I haven't had sex with a man because of you, my murderous son.
02:24So I got a claw hammer, and I beat her to death.
02:28Raymond Eugene Brown
02:29Fourteen-year-old Raymond Eugene Brown wanted some cleats, so on October 1, 1960, he broke into the home of some relatives, intending to steal money.
02:37When confronted by his aunt, he stabbed her 123 times with a kitchen knife, and then murdered his grandmother and great-grandmother.
02:43Brown's mother found the bodies the next day and called the police, leading to Raymond's arrest.
02:47Despite the severity of his crimes, Brown was a model prisoner and was paroled in 1973.
02:51However, this was revoked in 1980 after Brown attempted to kill his landlord.
02:55Nevertheless, he was granted parole again in 1986.
02:57Less than a year later, Brown murdered his live-in girlfriend and her young daughter.
03:01He was convicted once more and died on death row in 2008.
03:05David Edward Maust
03:06At just nine years old, David Edward Maust was institutionalized at his mother's request, who claimed that he exhibited dangerous behavior.
03:12Indeed, after enlisting in the army, Maust killed teenager James McClister and was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, receiving a four-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth.
03:20He specifically asked not to be paroled but was released in 1977.
03:24He then murdered three more people and was eventually given a 35-year sentence.
03:28But with credit for time served and good behavior, he was released in June 1999.
03:32This once again contradicted Maust's request not to be paroled.
03:35And once again, he murdered another three people after being released.
03:38Maust was finally given a life sentence, but he took his own just one month after sentencing.
03:43Kenneth McDuff
03:44Sometimes called the Broomstick Killer, Kenneth McDuff worked with an accomplice named Roy Green.
03:59In August 1966, Duff and Green abducted three teenagers near Fort Worth, Texas.
04:04He shot the two boys, then proceeded to sexually assault the surviving girl before strangling her with a broomstick, earning him the moniker.
04:09He was sentenced to death in 1968, but just four years later, the Supreme Court commuted many death sentences, including McDuff's, to life in prison.
04:16And then in 1989, after serving 21 years, McDuff was released.
04:20How can this serial killer get out of prison? How could he have been on death row and make parole?
04:27He got by with murder. He could do it again.
04:30The parole board supposedly believed that he could still contribute to society.
04:33They were wrong.
04:34Almost immediately after his release, McDuff began killing again, and is believed to have murdered at least six further victims.
04:40The general reaction was, how on earth could this man get out?
04:45This is the Broomstick Killer, and if anyone should be executed, it should be him.
04:53Jack Unterweger
04:54A convicted murderer set free, only to kill again.
04:59Jack had not been redeemed at all. Jack was still this psychopathic killer.
05:03In 1974, Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger took Margaret Schaefer into the woods and killed her in a particularly brutal fashion.
05:11While in prison, Unterweger began writing an autobiography, along with poems, short stories, and articles.
05:16These writings actually garnered acclaim from Austrian literary critics, and they campaigned for his release,
05:21believing that they exhibited traits of personal transformation and rehabilitation.
05:24A very important Austrian journalist named Gunter Nenning, he took an interest in Jack Unterweger and the possibility that Jack could be an example,
05:37not only of a literary artist, but of a violent offender who was successfully rehabilitated.
05:43But they misinterpreted the writings as being deep and remorseful self-reflection,
05:47when in reality they were more performative, even manipulative.
05:49But the pressure worked, and Unterweger was released on parole in 1990 after serving 15 years.
05:54Unfortunately, he was most definitely not rehabilitated, and Unterweger murdered at least 11 more women between 1990 and 1992.
06:01It was immediately apparent to me that this was a person with a very quick intellectual grasp,
06:06someone who could think very quickly, who spoke very well,
06:10who had strong manipulative powers over everyone who listened to him.
06:15Arthur Shawcross.
06:16He went through each and every one of them,
06:19and gave his account of how he killed each one of them.
06:23Professor of Psychiatry Dr. Michael Stone called the case of Arthur Shawcross
06:26one of the most egregious examples of the unwarranted release of a prisoner.
06:30The story dates back to 1972, when Shawcross committed two heinous murders in Watertown, New York.
06:35Under the conditions of a highly controversial plea deal,
06:38Shawcross was sentenced to 25 years in prison with the possibility of parole.
06:42You meet a prostitute on the street, you know, it's like a kid in a candy store, right?
06:48Said parole occurred just 14 years later, when Shawcross was released in 1987.
06:53Following his release, Shawcross settled in Rochester and began a new killing spree within a year.
06:57Between 1988 and 1989, Shawcross murdered at least 12 more women.
07:01He was eventually caught and sent back to prison, where he died from cardiac arrest in 2008.
07:06After I admitted to the 11, he was like a big weight fellow.
07:11And then one detector asked me, if you had to do it over again, what would you do?
07:15I said, I'd put them all in one hole and you'd never find them.
07:18Carla Homolka
07:19I do know, however, that women and men are equally capable of doing evil and doing wrong,
07:24and that in this particular instance, I'm not so certain that that fact was appreciated.
07:29Working with her then-husband, Paul Bernardo,
07:31Carla Homolka committed three murders in the early 1990s.
07:34Two victims were kidnapped off the street and murdered.
07:36The third was Carla's own sister, Tammy, who they drugged and sexually assaulted.
07:40Christ, she should have been out an hour ago.
07:42Don't use too much.
07:44Don't worry, it's not going to hurt her.
07:46Tammy ultimately died by choking on her own vomit.
07:48Homolka then entered one of the most controversial plea deals in criminal history,
07:52dubbed the deal with the devil by the Canadian press.
07:54She effectively fooled prosecutors, making them believe that Bernardo was the driving force behind the crimes,
07:59and that she was an unwilling participant.
08:00As a result, Homolka was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to only 12 years in prison.
08:05She was released in 2005 and has lived free ever since.
08:08When Homolka was released, she had served her full sentence.
08:11She was free to start a new life and choose where she wanted to live.
08:15Like it or not, she has the right to live her life like any other person,
08:20without being subject to threats and harassment.
08:22Leslie Van Houten
08:23Susan Atkins and Leslie Van Houten
08:26Case number A-253-156, Department 104
08:30We the jury, in the above entitled action, find the defendant, Charles Manson,
08:38guilty of the crime of murder of Abigail Folger in violation of Section 187, Penal Code of California,
08:45a felony as charged in count one of the indictment,
08:47and we further find it to be murder of the first degree.
08:50One of the most famous members of the Manson family, Leslie Van Houten,
08:54was convicted for her role in the LaBianca murders,
08:56which occurred just one day after the infamous Tate killings.
08:59She was originally sentenced to death, but this was later commuted to life in prison
09:02after the California Supreme Court invalidated the state's death penalty.
09:06She then served over 50 years in prison, her parole being repeatedly denied.
09:10The 73-year-old had been serving a life sentence
09:13after she was convicted for the gruesome killings of Lino and Rosemary LaBianca in 1969.
09:19Her parole request had been rejected five other times,
09:23amid family members' outrage at the possibility she could walk free.
09:28That is until 2023.
09:29An appeals court argued that Van Houten was no longer a danger to society,
09:33and she was released on parole at the age of 73.
09:35Her release sparked a range of reactions,
09:37from supporters who argued about the virtues of reform,
09:40to opponents who were left in disbelief at her release.
09:42I really do not believe that anyone who kills two people,
09:47and especially having, in such a brutal manner,
09:51should ever be let out of prison.
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10:08Pedro Lopez
10:11The captain was stunned.
10:13It seemed impossible that one man could have carried out so much violence.
10:18If Lopez was telling the truth,
10:20he'd rank among the most prolific serial killers in history.
10:24Pedro Lopez murdered at least 110 people between 1969 and 1980,
10:28although he confessed to over 300.
10:30Ecuador does not impose life sentences,
10:32and in 1980, the maximum was just 16 years.
10:35So that's what Lopez got.
10:35However, he was considered a model prisoner and was released two years early, in 1994.
10:40On August 31st, 1994,
10:43serial killer Pedro Alonso Lopez was released from the Garcia Moreno prison
10:47after serving 14 years of a 16-year sentence.
10:51He was released two years early for good behavior.
10:54Following his release,
10:55Lopez was deported to Colombia and admitted to a mental hospital.
10:58He stayed there until 1998, when he was declared sane and released.
11:01He has led a quiet life ever since,
11:03although a number of murders that occurred in the 2000s
11:05bears similarities to his M.O.,
11:07leading many to believe that he continued his killing spree.
11:10He went back into the countryside he knew so well,
11:13to the killing ground where he had found so many victims.
11:19That was the last time anyone reported seeing Pedro Alonso Lopez.
11:24Can you think of any other shocking examples?
11:26Let us know in the comments below.
11:28Many questioning how Marcelin was free in the first place.
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