Patrick Kearney

“	I would only hope that the Community Release Board will never see fit to parole Mr. Kearney because he appears to be an insult to humanity	”
	— Paul Breckenridge Jr. about Kearney

Patrick Wayne Kearney, a.k.a. "The Trash Bag Killer", is a prolific American necrophilic, pedophilic, ephebophilic, and hebephilic serial killer. He is one of the three killers who were believed to be a single serial killer, "The Freeway Killer".

History

Born in East Los Angeles, California, on September 24, 1939, Kearney was the oldest of three sons and raised in a stable family. However, because of his appearance, he was a victim of bullying at a young age. As a teenager, Kearney started to fantasize about killing people. He lived in Texas for a short time and eventually moved back to California, where he worked as an engineer for the Hughes Aircraft Company. In his personal life, Kearney was a skilled gay pickup artist and fluent in Spanish, attributes that would later help him during his murders. After moving to Redondo Beach, he met with a man named David Hill and they eventually became lovers. Kearney would go out for long solitary drives after having arguments with Hill. During these drives, he would pick up male hitchhikers or homosexual men from gay bars.

Murders, Arrest, and Incarceration

Kearney's first known murder victim was an unidentified 19-year-old man in 1962; he took him to a secluded area on his motorcycle and shot him in the head before engaging in acts of necrophilia with the man's corpse. He proceeded to kill many more victims in the next several years.

Days later, the remains of a victim murdered by Kearney were found and police discovered that he was last seen with Kearney and Hill. Both fled to El Paso, Texas, but were arrested after their families convinced them to turn themselves in. Hill was released after it was deduced that he had no involvement in the murders. Kearney confessed to 38 murders, but was charged with 21 counts of murders. Police believe that he may be responsible for even more murders. Kearney pleaded guilty and subsequently avoided a death sentence. He is now incarcerated at California State Prison.

Modus Operandi

Kearney would mainly pick up male hitchhikers or homosexual men from gay bars and shoot them, usually in the temple, above the ear, with a .22-caliber derringer. Most of the victims were killed while asleep or distracted. After murdering them, he would take the bodies to a secluded place and engage in acts of necrophilia, then take them home, where they would be sodomized with X-Acto knives. They were then mutilated and dismembered with hacksaws. As a forensic countermeasure, he would sometimes extract the bullets from their heads and then dispose of the bodies in canyons, landfills, and along the freeways, usually in trash bags, earning him his current nickname.

Alternatively, Kearney would take the bodies to the desert to be eaten by animals. He would also drain his victims' blood to eliminate odors and sometimes even bathe the dismembered body parts to minimize the blood and eliminate fingerprint evidence. Kearney would sometimes beat his victims' bodies to get a sensation of power over them and also to suppress his anger. Additionally, some of his victims resembled bullies from his childhood and adolescence. With his younger victims, Kearney smothered them and then dismembered their bodies, just like he did with his older victims.

Known Victims

1962, Indio, Los Angeles, California, U.S.:
- Spring: Unnamed man, 19 (shot in the head)
- Unspecified date: Unnamed man, 16 (a cousin of the previous victim)
- Unspecified date: Mike, 18 (surname unrevealed)
Unspecified date in 1965, Orange County, California, U.S.: Unnamed man
December 1967, Tijuana, Mexico: George (surname unrevealed; shot in the head as he slept and the bullet extracted; sodomized, dismembered, and flayed post-mortem)
June 21, 1971, Los Angeles, California, U.S.: John Demchik, 13
September 22, 1973, unspecified location in California, U.S.: James Barwick, 17
August 24, 1974, Los Angeles, California, U.S.: Ronald Dean Smith, Jr., 5 (smothered; his body was found on October 12)
1975:
- April 13, San Diego, California, U.S.: Albert Rivera, 21
- November 10, Los Angeles, California, U.S.: Larry Gene Walters, 20
1976:
- March 3, Redondo Beach, California, U.S.: Kenneth Eugene Buchanan, 17 (shot four times)
- March 21, Redondo Beach, California, U.S.: Oliver Peter Molitor, 13 (killed by unknown causes)
- April 19, unspecified location in California, U.S.: Larry Armedariz, 15
- June 16, Redondo Beach, California, U.S.: Michael Craig McGhee, 13
- June 20, Los Angeles, California, U.S.: John Woods, 23
- August 23, Los Angeles, California, U.S.: Larry Epsy, 17
- August 28, unspecified location in California, U.S.: Wilfred Lawrence Faherty, 20
- August, San Diego, California, U.S.: Randall Lawrence Moore
- Fall:
  - Los Angeles, California, U.S.: Robert Benniefiel, 17 (his body was never found)
  - San Diego, California, U.S. David Allen, 27
- October, Orange County, California, U.S.: Mark Andrew Orach, 20
- November 15-24, Indio, California, U.S.: Timothy B. Ingham, 19
1977:
- January 23, Los Angeles, California, U.S. (found): Nicholas "Nicky" Hernandez-Jimenez, 28
- February, Los Angeles, California, U.S.: Arturo Romos Marquez, 24
- March 13, Los Angeles, California, U.S.: John Otis LaMay, 17 (shot in the back of the head and dismembered post-mortem)
- April 6, Redondo Beach, California, U.S.: Merle Chance, 8 (smothered with a sweater; his body was discovered on May 26)
Unspecified date and location: Tony Stewart, 19 (attempted)
Note: Kearney claimed to be responsible for as many as 38 murders, and is suspected to be responsible for even more.

Other Freeway Killers

Kearney was the first of three "Freeway Killers" active in Calfornia in the 1970s. The other two are:

William Bonin

Born January 8, 1947
Killed 14-21 victims
Targeted boys in their early- to late-teens
Raped and tortured his victims
Killed his victims to silence them, by strangulation with their own T-shirts, stabbing, or battering
Assisted by several acquaintances during the murders
Started molesting and sexually assaulted boys in his teenage years
Arrested for molesting a 17-year-old boy during the killings, but was erroneously released
Suspected after a would-be victim who was released confided in a counselor
Arrested again on June 11 while sexually assaulting a boy known as "Harold T."
Found guilty and executed by lethal injection on February 23, 1996, at the age of 49.

Randy Kraft

Born March 19, 1945
Also nicknamed "The Score-Card Killer"
Killed 16-67 victims
Targeted males in their late teens to mid-20s
Usually strangled them to death or killed them with a combination of torture and drugs
Sometimes also stuffed an object into the victims' rectums
Took photos of his victims after killing them and kept a record of them
Arrested after being pulled over for drunken driving and the body of a victim being found in the trunk of his car
Charged and briefly sentenced to death, but the sentence was downgraded to a life sentence.
Currently incarcerated at San Quentin.

On Criminal Minds

While Kearney has yet to be directly mentioned or referenced on the show, he appears to have been an inspiration for the following unsubs:

Season Two
- The Mill Creek Killer and The Hollow Man ("The Last Word") - All are serial killers (Kearney was also a necrophiliac like The Mill Creek Killer) who were active at the same time as other serial killers. Kearney also shot his victims like The Hollow Man.
Season Eight
- Paul Westin ("Broken") - Both are homosexual serial killers who targeted homosexual men, lured them from public places, and shot them (though Westin only shot his last two victims, one accidentally). Also, the scenario where he flees with Mitchell Ruiz is similar to how Kearny fled with David Hill.
Season Twelve
- Mark Tolson ("A Good Husband") - Both are homosexual killers who hunted men in California, and had a relationship with another man. They found victims in bars, killed them in their vehicles, and dismembered them.