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Ángel Maturino Reséndiz, aka The Railway Killer, is a serial killer awaiting execution on death row in Texas, United States. An illegal immigrant from Mexico, he wandered the country on trains to commit his crimes.
He was 39 years old when he was arrested in July 1999. He had been chiefly known, and sought, under the alias Rafael Resendez-Ramirez up until that date but he had about thirty other aliases that he used. One of these, Ángel Reyes Reséndiz was very close to the name given on his birth certificate from Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla: Ángel Leoncio Reyes Recendis.
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Murders and methodology
He evaded authorities for a considerable time, having set up no fixed addresses, and making undocumented international transit between Mexico, the United States, and Canada until he was captured. Local residents in the area of the Benton and the Sirnics' murders were terrified that he might reappear, especially those living near train tracks.
Reséndiz killed eleven people with rocks and other objects in their homes, to steal money for alcohol and drugs. He raped some female victims, though rape only served as a secondary intent. Reséndiz never killed able-bodied people, having not himself been a physically strong or intimidating individual. Most of his victims were found covered with a blanket, or otherwise obscured from immediate view.
Victims
The following deaths are attributed to Reséndiz:
1. August 29, 1997, Lexington, Kentucky, Christopher Maier, 21 years old. He was a University of Kentucky student who was bludgeoned to death. His girlfriend was raped and nearly died after being beaten, but she survived.
2. October 4, 1998, Hughes Spring, Texas, Leafie Mason, 81 years old. She was hammered to death with a fire iron by Reséndiz, who entered through a window. Fifty yards outside her door was the Kansas City-Southern Rail line.
3. December 17, 1998, West University Place, Texas, Claudia Benton, 39. Benton, who studied at the Baylor College of Medicine and worked with children, was raped, stabbed, and bludgeoned repeatedly after she entered her home, which is near the West University train tracks. Police found her Jeep Cherokee in San Antonio and found Reséndiz's fingerprints on the steering column. After the murder, Reséndiz had a warrant for his arrest for burglary, but not yet for murder.
4 and 5. May 2, 1999, Weimar, Texas, Norman J. Sirnic, 46 years old, and Karen Sirnic, 47 years old. The Sirnics were bludgeoned to death by a sledgehammer in a parsonage of the United Church of Christ, where Norman Sirnic was a pastor. The building was located adjacent to a railroad. The Sirnics' red Mazda was also found in San Antonio three weeks later, and fingerprints link their case with the Claudia Benton case.
6. June 4, 1999, Houston, Texas, Noemi Dominguez, 26 years old. Dominguez, a schoolteacher, was bludgeoned to death in her apartment near the rail tracks. Seven days later, her white Honda Civic was discovered by state troopers on the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas.
7. June 4, 1999, Fayette County, Texas, Josephine Konvicka, 73 years old. Konvicka was killed by the blow of a pointed garden tool on the head while she lay sleeping. Her farmhouse is not far from Weimar. Reséndiz attempted to steal the car but was unable to take it away since he could not find the car keys.
8. and 9. June 15, 1999, Gorham, Illinois, George Morber Senior, 80 years old, and Carolyn Frederick, 52 years old. Reséndiz shot George Morber in the head with a shotgun and then clubbed Carolyn Frederick to death. Their house was located only 100 yards away from a railroad line. Later, an onlooker sees a man matching Reséndiz's description driving Carolyn Frederick's red pickup truck in Cairo, Illinois, which is located 60 miles south of Gorham.
In addition, Reséndiz admitted to two additional killings:
1. March 23, 1997, Ocala, Florida, Jesse Howell, 19 years old. He was bludgeoned to death with an air hose coupling and left beside the tracks.
2. March 23, 1997, We Hope, Florida, Wendy VonHuben, 16 years old. She was raped, strangled, suffocated and buried in a shallow grave approximately 30 miles away from her fiancé, Jesse Howell.
Arrest and trial
The police tracked down Reséndiz's sister, Manuela, and knew she would be important in his capture. Manuela feared that her brother might kill someone else or be killed by the FBI, so she agreed to help. A Texas Ranger named Drew Carter, accompanied by Manuela and a Spiritual Guide met up with Reséndiz on a bridge connecting El Paso, Texas, with Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
Reséndiz surrendered to him.
The state of Texas tried Reséndiz for the murder of Dr. Claudia Benton. He was found guilty and was sentenced to death by lethal injection.
In 1999, former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox — wary of the controversy miring the many confessions and recantations by Henry Lee Lucas — remarked of Reséndiz that "I hope they don't start pinning on him every crime that happens near a railroad track." [1] (http://www.ble.org/pr/archive/headline0625a.html)
External links
- Article on Ángel Maturino Reséndiz (http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial2/railroad/)
- Article about Reséndiz's admission to two murders (http://www.courttv.com/archive/national/2000/0609/resendiz_ap.html)
- PolkOnline article about Reséndiz's admissions (http://www.polkonline.com/stories/072499/sta_rrkillr.shtml)