Maury Travis

“	Dear Bill, nice sob story about Teresa Wilson. Write one about Greenwade. Write a good one and I'll tell you where many others are to prove I'm real. Here's directions to number seventeen. Search in a fifty yard radius of the X. Put the story in the Sunday paper like the last.	”
	— Travis' letter to Bill Smith at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Maury Troy Travis a.k.a. The Street Walker Strangler or The Videotape Killer is an American prolific serial killer and serial rapist of dozens of black-American women across the Central United States in the early 2000s. He was caught after being traced through a letter to a local newspaper bragging about his crimes, evidence in his possession including violent snuff films.

History[]

Little is revealed about Travis's past. He lived with his parents Sandra and Michael in the Carr Square public housing complex, before moving to a ranch in Ferguson. Travis' parents divorced in 1978. Neighbors who remembered him regarded him as friendly and volunteering for their landscaping, even showing them how the equipment he used works. Most people, however, don't remember him, even very few teachers in school, who usually recounted he was remarkably quiet and withdrawn. Travis went into the army reserve for two years, then worked as a medical assistant, a trucker, and nursing home volunteer. Travis became addicted to cocaine in 1987, and in 1988, he was arrested for robbing five shoe stores with a toy gun to pay for his addiction. He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment, and went into rehab, U.S. Representative William L. Clay writing a recommendation letter for leniency. Two months in, Travis wrote a pleading, carefully-worded letter to the judge presiding over his case for a sentence reduction, arguing the prison was filled with rapes, drugs, and poor conditions. Travis was paroled after three years and five months, only having two more stints on drug charges. He took multiple restaurant jobs as the years progressed, working as a waiter at the Mayfair Hotel during the time of the murders. His colleagues regarded him as being an advocate against drugs and talking about auto mechanics with them. But a girlfriend of one co-worker said Travis told her he knew a serial killer and where they left victims for dead, specifically East St. Louis, where Travis said his friend's car was found set on fire after being stolen. That region would be the same location where women Travis is suspected of murdering would be found. The girlfriend's boss at a TV station couldn't trace murders of women to identify Travis' claims.

From 2000 to 2002, dozens of women of color were found dead, often reduced to skeletons, near public roads and in forested areas in Missouri and Illinois. The majority of the women were found in East St. Louis and West Alton, which, given the burial grounds and similar M.O.s, revealed the presence of a serial killer. St. Louis Police-Dispatch reporter Bill Smith covered the murders, running a life story article on one of the women, Teresa Wilson, who was found in West Alton in May 2001. In May 2002, an anonymous letter was sent to Smith, demanding he continue to write about the victims if anyone wanted to get Travis' confessions to more killings. Included was a map with an "X", which led to the bones of a woman who remains unidentified. The letter reported she's the seventeenth person Travis murdered, and its return address only read I THRALLDOM, a bondage website. The map was identified as a printout from Expedia.com, so as the FBI was involved in the case, they subpoenaed for records on who used the site to obtain the map, narrowing the timeline to between May 18 and May 21, the respective dates of the article's release and the letter's postmark. Travis' IP address was identified as the only computer using that map, and he was arrested at his home, admitting he knew why the police were detaining him. His basement revealed countless bloodstains, bondage equipment, various weapons, including a stun gun, newspaper clippings of the murders, and numerous videos of women held captive and tortured to death on camera. Travis' DNA tested from a can used for soda police gave him as a refreshment during interrogation was a match to semen samples taken from rape exams conducted on Yvonne Crues and Brenda Beasley, two women who were found murdered in mid-2001. A third woman, Betty James, was identified in Travis' snuff films and by tire tracks from his car on her leg. Police in Atlanta, Georgia, also wanted to question Travis in the murders of six women in 1994, while he was living in the city.

Travis faced federal charges ad was placed in the county jail, where he was under suicide watch. On June 10, 2002, three days after Travis' arrest, when the guards missed two consecutive checks, Travis hanged himself with his cell's bedding.

Modus Operandi[]

Travis targeted black-American women, usually low-class and high risk. By unknown means, he would abduct them and hold them captive in his basement, binding them with bondage equipment, raping and torturing them during their entire captivity while recording the violence on video. The tapes revealed Travis forced the women to state their names on camera, as well as say any final words to people they love. Travis killed every woman by strangulation with ligatures, including belts, then left their remains off roadsides and in isolated natural locations, occasionally burying them.

Known Victims[]

The following dates and locations denote when when where the victims were found:

1994, Atlanta, Georgia: Six unidentified women
July 31, 2000, East St. Louis, Illinois: Mary Shields, 61
2001
- March 21, Washington Park, Illinois: Cassandra F. Walker, 19
- April 1, Washington Park, Illinois: Alysa Greenwade, 34
- April 4, East St. Louis, Illinois: Unidentified woman, 44 (attempted, but barely survived)
- May 15, West Alton, Missouri: Teresa Wilson, 36
- May 23, St. Louis, Missouri: Betty James, 46
- June 29, West Alton, Missouri: Verona Thompson, 36
- August 25, East St. Louis, Illinois: Yvonne Crues, 50
- October 8, East S. Louis, Illinois: Brenda Beasley, 33
2002
- January 30, Mascoutah, Illinois: Unidentified woman
- March 11, Highland, Illinois: Unidentifed woman
- March 28, Columbia, Illinois: Unidentified woman
- May 25, West Alton, Missouri: Unidetnfieid woman

Note: Travis confessed to at least seventeen murders in his letter. He's been conclusively tied to twelve women, and is suspected of murdering 20 women in the bi-state area he primarily operated in.

On Criminal Minds[]

Season Two
- "Legacy" - While never directly mentioned or referenced in the episode, Travis appears to be the inspiration for the episode's main unsub, Charles Holcombe - Both are prolific serial killers targeting high-risk victims, operated in two states, one of them being Missouri, abducted victims off public streets, held them captive and tortured them to death, recorded the murders on video, send hateful letters to investigators disparaging the victims and attention to them, and died as a consequence of their crimes (Holcombe was shot by police, Travis hanged himself in police custody).
Season Four
- "Limelight" - While never directly mentioned or referenced in the episode, Travis appears to be the inspiration for the episode's unsub, Jeremy Andrus - Both are prolific serial killers and serial rapists targeting women, operated in multiple states, held them captive in their home's basements, tortured them to death, recorded the murders, left their remains in open locations off public roads and in isolated nature, buried some victims, communicated direct with investigators for attention, disparaged the victims in their messages, led police directly to one of their burial sites, and were arrested at their homes, evidence of their crimes recovered from their basements.
Season Eleven
- "Tribute" - Travis is possibly referenced as a potential serial killer the episode's unsub is planning to copy in his next murders.

Maury Travis

Contents

History[]

Modus Operandi[]

Known Victims[]

On Criminal Minds[]

Sources[]